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VISIT OF JAPHETH 



TO 



SHEM AND HAM. 



BY 



SAMUEL A. MUTCHMORE, D.D. 



"7 <A 




NEW YORK: 
ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 

530 Beoadwai. 
1889. 



- -•~ TT ~ '" I 

THE LIBRARY 

OF CGWGRESS 

^WASHINGTON 



U' 



Copyright, 1889, 
By Robert Carter & Brothers. 



aim&erstts IPrcss: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



A 

VISIT OF JAPHETH TO SHEM AND HAM. 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 

NATURE, on the morning of our departure from 
New York, wept profusely at our going, seem- 
ing to join in the adieux of friends who waved drip- 
ping handkerchiefs from the window of a dilapidated 
warehouse on "Pier 41." Even from the face of 
the alien Bartholdi statue, standing on her pedestal 
at the entrance of the harbor, tears trickled thick 
and fast, as if reminded by our going of her own 
sad exile. These farewells, however, did not last 
long, somebody was glad in sky or earth, for soon the sun 
came out and gave us his beamiest benediction. But 
whether in the smiles or frowns of nature one would be 
unworthy of a birth in such a country as ours who had 
not a sigh nor a tear as home fades into the dim dis- 
tance of the far-off coast-line. It keeps sacred all 
that has given life any value, all the suggestions that 
have given birth to thought, and all the associations 
which bring it back again. It started every ripple of 
joy in all existence, every tear as well, and assuages 
every grief. It holds the graves of our dead, and 
beams upon them with that thought of immortality 
which dismantles them of their gloom. 

A voyage on the sea is, of necessity, one of moods ; 
scenes shifting from shadow to sunshine make puppets 



of our feelings, leaving no abiding sense and no impres- 
sions that can pass into ideas. There is an oppressive- 
ness in lying between the moving cloudy seas above 
and the heaving billowy seas below. It is a sensation 
as chilly as a pack between wet blankets from which 
follows only bleachedness, the color going out even of 
one's thoughts. Life overwhelmed by boundlessness is 
the impression left on us. The sea at the first was hus- 
banding its strength, hardly deigning in our highest 
appreciation of its beauty to give a sickly smile in 
return. It was unpleasantly suggestive of the rougher 
greeting so soon to come. 

On the sea, as on the land, the same blessed law of 
compensation exists, so that when one source of comfort 
goes another comes. The sun had hidden himself be- 
hind his curtains to gleam at us from the surface 
of the moon, and never did this dark orb shine in 
greater though borrowed splendor. We could only 
think of the sweet song which our beloved Church 
loves to sing so well, " At evening time it shall be light." 
Nor were we wholly absorbed in the glory or brightness 
of this ocean night, for we knew it was shared by the 
loved ones left behind. It was broad enough for them 
and as glorious to them as us. We fancied that we 
could see their hearts beating and their thoughts 
shining on its serene face. It appeared as God's mirror, 
hung up so high that all created life might see itself in 
it; so when we would see home we look aloft and rejoice 
in the fact that there are no monopolies in God's provi- 
dential care. When weary eyelids drew us down in 
sleep we closed the day with those we love, they in their 
homes and we in the straitened limits of our berths, 
giving ourselves and all we love into the care of Him 
in whose hand oceans are as drops of water, trusting 



that He will bring us all at last unto the desired 
haven. 

And now all sleep save the watchful eyes on our out- 
look, or at the wheel, or on deck, but we sleep in dis- 
turbed consciousness of the beating, aft, of that iron 
pulse against the chafing waters. Sleep could not stay a 
moment if this pulse should cease beating, and so life is 
measured at sea by its pulsations. When morning came 
home had gone into the chamber of memory and we 
began to look about for daily duties, real or imaginary; 
no matter, one or the other, or both, must give life on 
shipboard. Our ship is staunch and well manned by 
God-fearing men of our own faith. The captain is a 
member of one of the churches in Glasgow and main- 
tains the dignity and Christian consistency of the land 
of faith, thought and martyrdoms. The crew are, in 
behavior, all of this style. We have no gambling, but 
little drinking, no vulgarity and no profanity, and on 
the Sabbath we have had reverence for its sacred hours. 
A pointed, old-fashioned sermon, direct and earnest, 
listened to and appreciated by all who could master 
their inward stirrings, not of conscience, but of stomach. 
The text was: "If we confess our sins, He is faith- 
ful and just to forgive us our sins," &c. We had that 
"guid auld" Psalm in which all joined with Scotch ardor 
and devotion, " All nations that on earth do dwell," &c. 

The passengers are largely of the Scotch and Scotch- 
Irish stock, who left, some forty, some thirty or twenty- 
five years ago, with nothing but their faith in the cove- 
nants of God, and with their convictions of duty to God 
and man, formed around the family altar. Now they are 
returning to visit the scenes of their childhood and the 
graves of their parents, and not a few who went out like 
Jacob, with their wealth in a pilgrim staff, are now 



returning in " two bands." In their absence they have 
changed the tense of the last verse of the twenty- 
third Psalm, which they sang at their parting. " Good- 
ness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our 
life," is now "goodness and mercy have followed us," 
&c. We have sad misgivings, however, that they 
are not all so spiritually metamorphosed. Some no 
doubt have, grown rich, and as mean as rich; some 
have learned the fatal art of effacing the pious im- 
pressions of childhood, and some are sitting in the 
seat of the scornful. And in all the hateful progeny of 
men there is no one so disgusting as an infidel Scotchman, 
hateful and hating, hard and spiteful against his Maker, 
a marred vessel, and the most shaj)eless and useless of 
potsherds. 

The effect of prosperity on Scotch character is mar- 
vellous in either of its possible results. It will thaw 
out all its natural severities and make it growthful, or 
it will harden it until it becomes flinty, even as flints 
are hardened sponges. When the " canniness" of the 
Scotch character is united to cupidity it is terrible. 
We have heard of a Scotch experience, related too 
in gratitude, which had in it a single dash of this 
union, sufficient to explain our meaning. A poor, 
honest and diligent youth left his home in quest at first 
only of a living ; he dared not hope for more. But 
his honesty was trusted, and his diligence and integ- 
rity crowned with abundant thrift, while Christian char- 
acter continued upright and reverent. After he had be- 
come wealthy he returned to his native land, to the 
amazement and admiration of his early neighbors and 
kindred, richer than their Duke. He explained, with 
reverent acknowledgment of God's mercy, the cause. 
He had vowed when he crossed the sea that out of what- 



ever prosperity God would give him he would surely 
returned him a tenth, which he did, and said he, " I 
think this was the cause of my prosperity. But," added 
he, in conclusion, " my brethren, if I had at the first 
known what I know now I think I would have given 
Him the one-twelfth!" 

However, we believe that on the average there is 
no character more safely to be trusted to use wealth 
in Christ's cause than the Scotchman, for he has not 
only the impulse of gratitude to give to Christ, but he 
has a sense of the "oughtness" of obligation beyond 
all men. It comes to him as an inheritance through a 
long line of noble men and women, who have ever 
found a strong barrier between them and wrong-doing 
in the words : — " How can I do this great wickedness 
and sin against God ?" 

This explains the good moral tone of our ship ; the 
Scotch dominate, and weaker beliefs, rooted in the top 
soil, have to bow, and it is strange to observe how 
readily the subserviency is rendered. The Scotch say 
nothing, but look with calm dignity and it is done. 
We have some " Hickory Quakers" aboard who early 
announced that they were "Unitarian Free-thinkers," 
but nobody paid any more attention to it than to any 
other form of heathenism. Nobody controverted it or 
even bristled up, and the result has been that they 
have fallen into the orthodox ways, without the slight- 
est rebellion, under the irresistible weight of public 
opinion. 

In chronicling daily events none are more obtrusive 
than seasickness, the pest of the ocean for ages. Com- 
monplace, and even vulgar, it still commands all re- 
sources and all attention. Seventeen years have elapsed 
since we have had any contact with it, and we find it still 



the same remorseless foe to ocean happiness, though ai 
the present, in many respects, modified. We have a 
steadier and larger ship, larger berths, but it is all the 
same, the curse lies on two-thirds of the passengers, 
and we only regret that it does not seize the other 
third. Hard-heartedness characterizes the third who 
do not have it ; they look on the straining victim and 
leer and affect a superiority exasperating in the ex- 
treme. It would be a comfort to know that there 
were two she bears aboard that could be let loose upon 
them, not to tear them in pieces for their heartless- 
ness, but to run them up into the masts to beg for 
mercy and help from the plague-smitten sufferers 
below. 

There are strange and unaccountable freaks in hu- 
manity, but none stranger than the idiocy of going to 
sea on bridal tours. That must be a deathless love, 
which many waters cannot quench, which can live 
through three days' seasickness. It is a marvel if that 
wooing has not to be all done over. When we crossed 
seventeen years ago our eyes were opened to a fact that 
even married life has not dispelled. A young minister 
from about Boston stood by his beautiful wife on that 
Saturday evening, all bathed in sunshine, as we went 
sailing down the bay from New York city. Our dear 
friend, Dr. Eobert W. Henry, of Philadelphia, was 
with us. He had parted from his sorrowing wife at the 
pier, the last glimpse was of her bowed head leaning 
on one of the oaken pile-heads, her face buried in her 
hands, little knowing then that it was a last parting. 
Seeing the happy, newly-married pair, we said, to 
cheer him: 

" What fools we are ! You ought to have brought 
your wife, and I ought to have had a bride like that 



preacher on the rear deck with his little wife, pretty- 
as a pink." 

Said Dr. Henry, "She may change her color before 
we get over, and he may wish himself in our place." 

Darkness intervened between us and his prophecy. 
On Sabbath morning the husband appeared, took a cup 
of coffee and munched a cracker. Monday he re-ap- 
peared forlorn enough. On deck Tuesday he climbed 
the stairs, dragging her like a sick kitten, her finery all 
laid aside, her coquettish smiles all gone. He laid her 
down upon a bench, and then, venturing much on min- 
isterial courtesy, he found the writer away by the 
smoke-stack, rolled up in a buffalo robe and just 
able to live. With a clerical impudence really sub- 
lime, he said : 

" My brother, will you not go yonder and roll my 
sick wife up in your robe ? She is shivering with cold ; 
I am deathly seasick, and she is worse, and to tell the 
truth it makes me sick to look at her." 

Slowly and reluctantly the courtesy was extended, 
without other reward except the knowledge of the fact 
suspected before — that the ardor of even hymeneal 
love depends mightily on the condition of the stomach, 
an unromantic fact, unpoetical, utterly without fancy, 
but a truth that oftener finds practical verifications 
than men and women choose to tell. 

But the saddest phase of this torment is its exhaus- 
tion to child-life. There are an unusual number of 
families and their little ones on board, many of whom 
have tasted early of the irritating depression of the 
sea. Little babes lying on the bosoms of sick mothers, 
getting on in the journey of life as best they can, 
looking in vain into mothers' faces for a smile or a 
tender word. The mothers are too sick or cross to 



10 

give either ; the fact is, it is an inhuman kind of sick- 
ness. The mother finds some ray of comfort in 
being told that it is six hundred miles to Glasgow, but 
the babe knows not that all life is not to continue in 
chronic retching. Then their miseries are increased 
in the fact that there is not a mouthful of any but 
sour bread aboard. It is the great defect in this 
splendid ship's outfit— the bread is sour enough to set 
the children's teeth on edge. 

We have been greatly interested in a little baby boy, 
a motherless darling, white as a lily, dimpled-faced, $ 
golden-haired, with bright eyes glistening through con- 
stant tears. His mother died in Pittsburgh, Pa., when 
he was only four days old. She kissed this precious 
treasure as the last act of her life, and looked to Him 
who had come in her youth to take her home, to be the 
stay and refuge of this motherless son, and to return 
to the child the care given by His own mother Mary 
as she watched over Him in babyhood, and whose soul 
was thrust through by the sword of anguish as she saw 
and pitied Him on the cross. 

This baby was lifted from the cold bosom of the 
mother to that of his aged grandmother in Canada, 
who loves him with all the fervor of her own mother- 
life, strengthened by the memories of babes which she 
laid down from tender arms to their last resting-place. 
And now he is growing to be, in the twilight of her 
own sunsetting, the dearest earthly object between her 
and heaven. She is carrying this treasure over the 
seas to her own dear childhood's home in Scotland, to 
be invigorated by the mountain air blowing along the 
banks and braes until he shall pass the first childhood's 
dangers. In that foster-mother's heart is love untold 
and untellable. Those gray hairs are ever in view of 



11 

that young life, and the most thoughtless cannot but 
pause a moment to pray that this " Grandmother Lois" 
may live to see a young Timothy to bless the toil of 
her declining years, and that the church of mother and 
grandmother may be blessed by him in all the years 
and powers of his coming manhood. 

This ship's owners have not overlooked childhood's 
wants, and have cows aboard, and fresh milk for the 
little passengers, and they enjoy it hugely, and when 
not sick can be seen tugging at their bottles all about, 
and while some sprawl and kick from pure delight, 
many of them taste to turn away weary heads. 

There have been no deaths on the voyage as yet, and 
we hope there will be none. The saddest sight of life 
we ever witnessed was on a former voyage, in the death 
and burial of the child of a lowly German mother, who 
but for this death might have been turned out on the 
quay at Liverpool penniless. Her husband had been 
smitten by consumption, and with the longing so pecu- 
liar to this form of disease he thought if he could only 
see once more, and breathe the air of, his own boy- 
hood's Ehine cliffs he would be well again. But being 
poor he had to cross in February in the steerage. The 
cold winds, scant fare and hard bed were too much for 
him, and he had but scarcely reached his home until 
hemorrhages attacked him, and he sent to St. Louis for 
his wife and only child, a son, that he might see them 
once again. The wife sold their scanty household out- 
fit, and taking their babe, set out to see her husband's 
face ere she should know what penniless widowhood 
and orphanage meant. 

She wept night and day, and most of all because she 
knew not what would become of this fatherless child. 
But soon she learned God's purpose ; the child wasted 



12 

away ; his mother's grief had robbed him of his natural 
nurture, and she could secure no other. The poor peo- 
ple with her taxed themselves, and the little milk left 
from cabin use was procured, but it turned to disease 
and death, and the child closed its eyes in its mother's 
arms. She sat with this form in her arms, bemoaning 
her sad fate and uttering her distrustful complainings, 
until the ship officers compelled its burial. 

The ship carpenter prepared the rough box with the 
weights to sink it to its ocean bed ; tender hands clipped 
the golden locks from the little head now resting, to 
be carried to the dying father, and what remained was 
parted over the pale brow. No wraps enfolded this 
form but the faded calico gown. A poorer neighbor 
spread her white linen handkerchief over its face, and 
the carpenter filled up the space with clean pine shav- 
ings, and as he did his work he groaned and said: 
" God bless this poor mother ; God be thanked the wee 
bairn is safe." The captain came down to read the 
committal service according to the law. He was a 
hard-faced, swearing, blustering Englishman, but be- 
neath had a manly heart. He said to the carpenter, 
" Screw down the lid." 

" O no, captain," said the heart-stricken mother, " let 
me look on my baby boy once more." 

He turned away and waited. Again he said to the 
grief-stricken mother, " I am sorry to deprive you of 
any comfort. God knows you have few enough ; but I 
must proceed to read the service. I can do nothing 
else. Death, that robs us all, has made it my duty to 
give this form to the deep." 

She lifted herself, and the carpenter screwed down 
the lid, amid the sobs of the poor around her and the 
tears as well of those happier in this world's goods look- 



13 

ing down from the upper deck. The captain read in 
plaintive tones the service, and his voice faltered as he 
read, " I am the resurrection and the life.'"' Poor man ! 
Why he faltered there at the anchor of human hope 
we could never tell. He took the box to lower it into 
its billowy bed, the mother shrieked, "'0 captain!" 
and laid hold once more of her treasure ; the captain 
stood waiting for her to kiss that rough box, and then 
she said in her broken English, " Fadder, Thy will be 
done," and the little casket dropped into the sea, which 
took it quickly to its bosom, a little bubble rose, the 
sea's last messenger to tell us that all was well. 

"We had a lecture one evening during our voyage 
from Dr. Tver, an Irish Methodist preacher, who was 
returning from a visit to our country. He told us that 
Ireland had suffered much from bad landlords, but that 
things were improving. The Irish were better housed 
and educated, and had the advantages of the land 
tenure, &c, altogether making a very good showing 
for his country at present, and giving brighter pros- 
pects of things yet to come ; all of which was enter- 
taining and gratifying. It came in like a blessed 
refrain amongst the almost universal howls we have 
heard on our side about Irish distress; and strange to 
say, that while there were Home Rulers present on 
their return from their besmno; missions, with the beg;- 
ging muscles of their faces well straightened out from 
their pitiful contractions, they made no protests, but 
cheered in true Irish fashion, which brought us to a 
reflection wlrich we give in the words of the patriarch, 
" Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass, or loweth 
the ox over his fodder?" which might be translated, 
when Ireland has bread and prosperity she does not 
care much who rules. The lecturer dilated much on 



14 

the services Ireland rendered to America in the found- 
ing of our country, and in the guiding of our national 
craft to this hour, which was very interesting, save it 
has become a little monotonous. We need not be re- 
minded of our inabilities and obligations all the time, 
for as long as there is an Irishman afoot or afloat Ave 
shall not be able to forget them. Many of these good 
brethren forget that we are the descendants of that 
stock and want some share of the glory for ourselves. 



THE IRISH GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 

"TXTE landed at Moville and took a miserable, dirty 
T ? little tub, called a tender, and were soon on the 
bosom of Lough Foyle. We left the tug at London- 
derry, pushing on hurriedly to Belfast, that we might 
be present at the session of the General Assembly of 
the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. 

The sessions of the Assembly opened on the 8th of 
June, with a fair attendance. There is, at present, no 
great absorbing ecclesiastical question stirring the 
Church, which will account for the moderate numbers 
present. But withal there are about six hundred 
members in the Assembly. It is a remarkably fine- 
looking body of men — brainy, learned and eloquent. 
We doubt whether in the world so many men can be 
found ready and competent to speak, not only intelli- 
gently but forcibly, on every subject pertaining to the 
Church in its varied activities. With us, men are ex- 
pected to make great speeches on great themes and on 
great occasions, but these prompt, fertile Irishmen can 
make great speeches on little subjects and upon small 
occasions. They are always ready, their knowledge is 
ever at their tongues' end ; the difference between them 
and the Scotch and English is as the difference between 
15 



16 

siege guns whioh go off with n boom that may shake a 
continent, but which oan only go off occasionally and are 
so slow in Loading that the foe may be out of range of 
lighl arms, The Irish are as flying artillery- they see 
quiokly an advantage in position and are in it, limbered 
ii|> and firing destructive missiles. Then, before the siege 
guns can be turned on them, they are off playing mischief 
at some other "woals point. The mode of business is well 
calculated to make men ready and able. When a report 
is made the chairman is expeoted, either at tho beginning 
or end ofthodebate, tospeak. Theman whosecondsis 
expeoted to make a carefully prepared speech, it' the 
measure is important, and then thenext insupportof 
the question is hoard. Thou the crackle of artillery 
and small anus is heard all along the linos. 

All speaking takes immediately the form of debate, 
in whioh more of the personal appears than in any 
other oountry of which ho haveany knowledge. With 
ns such persona] thrusts, such merciless expositions of 
weak places in facts, statements anil logio, would raise 

a Storm whioh would wear out the Moderator's 

gavel, Hut here it rarely disturbs good-feeling, and 
after the question is decided they all meet in good 

humor again, The Moderator seems to have more 
power than in the Assembly ot' 1869, when I was 
present. Indeed, the supremaey oi' (he presiding otti- 
eer over the eonduet ot* the house has grown more 
imperative in all deliberative bodies on (he British 
side ot' the oeean. 

We witnessed the first application ot' the movement 

ot' the previous question, or "cloture," ns they now eall 
it, borrowed Prom Parliament, Though it was the first 
time all deterred to its working, and debate ended 
when the house was hot with excitement. 



17 

The retiring Moderator, Dr. Ross, of Londonderry, 
is a tall, venerable man, impressive in attitude and 
speech, a ready speaker, never wanting in appropriate 
words, and has filled the office with entire satisfaction. 
He is a good preacher, and has been an able pastor in all 
the departments of that work. According to the custom 
here he made an address, touching on some subjects 
which in our Assemblies would be considered quite out 
of ecclesiastical range, but the public mind here is so satu- 
rated with the political condition that it is impossible 
to keep it out of the Church of God. Eoman Catholic 
and Protestant are alike charged with it, and to touch 
either at the points nearest politics will surely bring 
discharge from the electric current within. But it would 
be a great mistake to think that the present political 
passions are nurtured in the churches. We believe 
that the best people of these churches dread the dangers 
which are threatening both from this wearying conten- 
tion. The conservative part of the Roman Catholic 
communion fear the result on their religious life. The 
politicians are breaking down the loyalty of the people 
to the Papacy. Men are learning to resist the former 
healthy restraint of the Church on their lives — there is 
a growing lawlessness which is veering many away 
toward communism. Men will now denounce their 
church in political excitement who would once have 
been appalled at even seeming to distrust it. The 
terrible agitations in the island are not helping the 
cause of religion at any point. 

The Moderator gave the Presbyterian phase of the 
question, and no doubt voiced a considerable sentiment 
in the Romish Church as well, in the following words, 
referring to Mr. Gladstone's bill which had confronted 
the Irish Assembly last year. He spoke in strong 



18 

terms of almost unfailing condemnation. Such, a 
measure, in his estimation, " would have been equally 
fatal to the commercial and industrial prosperity and 
progress of this country. (Hear, hear.) It would, 
doubtless, have proved more detrimental to the welfare 
of the Irish people than to the interests of the sister 
kingdoms. Our opinions in relation to that measure, 
whose dark, portentous shadow still hangs in angry 
menace over our land, are not altered by the events 
that have since occurred. Our opposition to it has not 
been relaxed, but intensified and strengthened by obser- 
vation and reflection, and the more we observe and the 
longer we reflect the less we like it." 

The Assembly elected Rev. Dr. Orr, Moderator, who 
is tall and handsome and rather of the Scotch type. 
Dignified, yet kind in his official conduct, he is competent 
to every exigency of his task. His knowledge is accurate 
and his rulings quick and firm, so that there has not 
been, in five days' sessions, an appeal from his rulings. 
He h an able preacher and pastor, a man whom his breth- 
ren delighted to honor. The incoming Moderator is ex- 
pected to address his brethren, and as there is but one 
theme different from the ordinary religious interest in 
religious bodies which would interest our readers, the 
relation of the Irish Presbyterian Church to the present 
political contest, we give the attitude of the Church 
of 1887, as declared by him in a few expressive sen- 
tences. " To God we look for safety in these troublous 
days, not to political parties or statesmen, which are but 
an arm of flesh. . . . accounting not "Ulster only 
but all Ireland to be our native land, and we seek the 
spiritual, moral and material advancement of its in- 
habitants of every class and creed, and strive and pray 
that Irishmen everywhere may be welded together in a 
common brotherhood of love." 



19 

"Ireland's drink bill in 188G, as taxed by govern- 
ment, is — British spirits, £4,965,217; beer, (made in 
Ireland,) £165,851 ; total, £5,131,068. To form any 
correct idea from these figures two points need here 
also to be kept in view. 1. All beer and ale imported 
into Ireland must be added to this amount, duty being 
paid on these where they are manufactured. 2. From 
causes on which we can make no comment here it is to 
be feared that a gallon of spirits as taxed by govern- 
ment represents a much larger quantity as consumed 
by the people. It is certainly within the facts to say 
that Ireland last year spent £10,000,000 on drink. 
The actual figures show an increase over 1885, in the 
matter of spirits alone, of £210,547, which, though 
£103,811 less than in 1884, is still a most deplorable 
record in view of the distressed condition of our un- 
happy country." 

There is a significant fact to be considered in con- 
nection with the bitter outcry against landlords and 
their rents, that, tyrannical as they may have been, 
they have not touched, in the production of poverty or 
its degradations, the domination of rum. The report 
says the actual figures for 1885, in the matter of 
spirits alone, were £210,547, which has no doubt had 
some serious connection with the amount of rents re- 
pudiated; so that it looks as if the repudiation of 
rents is simply getting out of one bondage into an- 
other. 

One of the forms of British hospitality is the break- 
fast, and a profitable and enjoyable institution it is. 
After refreshments speech-making is in order, and the best 
of thought, feeling and wit flows freely. The Assembly 
met iu this capacity in the spacious audience hall of 
the Young Men's Christian Association. The Modera- 



20 

tor presided for a time, but being called to otter 
duties, Rev. Dr. Wilson accepted the chair. The time 
was devoted to hearing reports from ministers and 
elders all over Ireland touching the reviving power of 
the Holy Spirit. It was a wonderful meeting; we 
have never witnessed its like. The Spirit of God 
was present with power, hearts were melted with the re- 
ports of what God had done for one church after another ; 
and the work deepens and broadens until at no distant 
day hope points to the time when Ireland shall be bap- 
tized by the Spirit as she is now by the mists of her 
surrounding seas. Expectations are great, but their plans 
and purposes for work are greater. The reliance upon 
God for help is humble, but divinely tenacious. We 
have never heard so many men — young, middle-aged and 
old — tell with so much self- negation of the wonderful 
works of God, begun, in one instance, by the faithful- 
ness of two boys and continued with power until a 
whole community was gathered in a barn and multi- 
tudes converted to Christ. But more, if possible, was 
made of conversions under the ordinary means of grace 
on the Sabbath in the churches, and surely that is more 
than an ideal work of God's Spirit which overcomes 
deadness and makes often the drone a saving power, 
for dead parishioners are never such hopeless cumberers 
as dead preachers. 

We went down from this breakfast, which in years 
before had been given over to wit and hilarity, feeling as 
if we had been on the Mount of Transfiguration. Much 
of the success of the occasion was due to the manage- 
ment of Rev. Dr. Rodgers. 

The subject of vocal music receives here surprising 
attention, and it is used, not as a church luxury, but as 
one of the means of grace. 



21 

The good effects of this special training is witnessed 
everywhere in the churches of Belfast. The singing 
and chanting in the churches of Drs. Johnstone and 
Williamson are grand, are soul-stirring. If there is 
preaching power in a man the singing will surely bring 
it out, and if any hearing or feeling capacity in the 
congregation it would stimulate this also. 



IRELAND AS SEEN IN THE NORTH. 

IRELAND is all and more than enthusiastic poets 
have depicted it. At this moment there is not a more 
beautiful spot on earth. Its skies are full of moisture, 
out of which comes the richest and most varied expres- 
sion of subdued color. The land is wrapped in a garment 
of indescribable green. We have in our own country no 
such shades of summer beauty. Upon this exquisite 
ground-work are pictured endless variations of floral 
display. Art also has lent its genius to enhance these 
attractions for centuries past, and has left its trophies all 
around. The little farms in the north, with their sod- 
built fencings overgrown with timber, mark sharply 
defined outlines all over the face of nature, and to the 
eye the whole surface looks like a series of living 
mosaics, in which colors are changed constantly by 
passing glints of sunshine and flitting shadows. 

The cattle feeding on these abundant pastures, the 
sheep reposing upon her hill-tops, the fowl in her 
22 



23 

lakes and water-courses, the elegant homes em- 
bowered in clumps of natural growths or cultivated 
forests, so that the landlord and his tenants are tenants 
in common of all that God has given of a wealth 
of natural beauty — it is a very paradise set like an 
emerald in the bosom of the sea. But in paradise, as 
we know, came the first appearance of the devil of dis- 
content, and men ever since have been more ready to 
rebel in the midst of abundance than even in the pinch- 
ing necessities of the desert. One paradise could not 
give contentment to the parent pair, and twenty will 
not give it to their children. The Lord knew this, 
hence he reduced man to the minimum of earthly 
expectation when he taught him to say: — "Give us 
this day our daily bread." 

Even the casual observer cannot fail to be impressed 
with the two prevailing characteristics here — beauty 
and co-existing dissatisfaction, both visible in this won- 
derful country whose loins are bound around with 
the ocean as its girdle. The fact is apparent here, if 
anywhere, that man never wants what he can easily 
get. The surviving instinct to advance lives in him 
in his deepest degradation, and his unrest is only the 
sigh of his former greatness and a prophecy of what 
he may become. 

The chronic discontent of Ireland is a matter of 
standing amazement, in view of any reason which the 
discontented have assigned. There is plenty of liberty 
here to do right, and more than ought to be to do 
wrong. The policy of the wrong-doers seems to be to 
get their rights by doing wrong. But we shall not be 
diverted to the political condition of Ireland at present. 
We would confine ourselves rather to her economic and 
moral resources, that through these we may be able to 



24 

find some of the elements of that discontent which hag 
become an almost constant factor in the problem of 
her existence. We will not take time to deal with 
Cathedrals and works of art, or even with the rare 
scenes in nature, where word-painting can give no true 
idea, and often belittlesgreatness by inferiority in com- 
parison. We desire to write of acts divine and human, 
of human conduct as the best exposition of the life, 
present and past, of men. The past can be read in 
various histories, the living present we will give as far 
as we have the ability to transfer it to print. 

As we are bound southward, and the names of the 
towns are called out, there is food for reflection as to 
the origin of the aborigines of the land, in the names 
they have left to the places of their probable founding. 
The prevalence of " Bel," or " Bell," is suggestive that 
at first it was Baal, and this has led to several theories 
as to where the first inhabitants of the island came 
from, and whether they brought Baalism as their re- 
ligion. This will be no reflection on St. Patrick, now 
claimed by Presbyterians and Roman Catholics alike, 
and for whom, as we crossed the sea, a new claimant 
started up declaring him to be a Methodist. But the 
inquiry is interesting, to the curious at least, how 
this " Bel" business got into the country ? 

We know that it is not complimentary, even as a sug- 
gestion, to say that the far-off ancestors of some in this 
isle were Baalites and shouted themselves hoarse on 
Mount Carmel, and were worse defeated by the river 
Kishon than on the Boyne. We, of course, enter on 
this investigation with great gravity and without the 
slightest personal hostility to the aborigines or any of 
their survivors. The Phoenicians were like many of 
our time, very fond of " tin," the slang mean- 



25 



ing of which Americans will understand. These tin- 
seeking Phoenicians, who, as we know, came as far as 
Marseilles, and perhaps to Spain, may have coasted 
about the Emerald Isle and tied up about Cornwall. It 
seems strange that they should skirt about Ireland for 
this valuable commodity. But we believe that the his- 
tory is entirely veracious, and that the instinct still 
survives and explains how it is that when the Irish are 
" hard-up" almost the first thing they do is to skirt 
about America for the products thereof. 

There are other marks of Phoenician origin which 
might convince such simple antiquarians as we are. 
It is the instinct of the genuine Celtic women to put 
all her adornments on her head. The shawl is turned 
into a head-gear, so that a shawl over the shoulders and 
head is the invariable outfit of the women in humble 
life. If they have no shawl they are as inventive as the 
Phoenicians in finding some substitute. 

In Dublin, on the way to the South of Ireland, in the 
sweltering heat of noonday, a young girl was seen travel- 
ling the streets with a man's overcoat on her head. At 
the railroad stations the Celtic women appeared with 
cloak, shawl, or any other cloth that could be utilized 
to this end. One woman had over her shoulders and 
head a double extra rubber horse-cloth when the heat 
was absolutely scorching. We are not criticising the 
universal custom — there may be, and is probably, reason 
for it, as there usually is for long existing customs 
— but we call attention to it as certainly Oriental. 
There is nothing like it existing anywhere else. The 
superstition of the lower classes sets in Phoenician 
directions, their myths point to tropical origin, while 
their continued idolatry gives additional probability to 
the theory. The Roman Catholic Church is over- 



26 



loaded with it, not because the Church has chosen 
this, or desires to continue it, but it must keep it or 
lose supremacy altogether. Intelligent Catholics will 
tell you that these gross superstitions are no part of 
their system, but rather adaptations to ignorant minds. 

Southern Ireland is the country of romance and 
poetry, and its traditions are a part of itself. But there 
is not a doubt of the antiquity claimed for its early set- 
tlers, whether kin or not to any of its present popula- 
tion. The round towers, so prominent in the North of 
Ireland, take the mind far back into an antiquity the 
characteristics of which are still traceable. They have 
been assigned to the Culdees, to the Druids, and a half- 
dozen others before and after them. Near the City of 
Belfast is an amphitheatre of earth, covering about the 
same acreage as the empty reservoir of the East Park, 
Philadelphia ; the clay walls are about as high. In the 
centre is a stone altar on which are supposed to have 
been offered human sacrifices of beautiful young 
maidens. It is but strictly truthful to say that while 
the circle and pile of great stones are there, there are 
mists of uncertainty about the kind of worship and 
who the worshippers were. It is located on a high hill, 
which is according to the Pagan fashion in the earlier 
centuries of the world's history. 

Belfast, which we are leaving, is the most modern 
and lively city in the kingdom. It is filled with 
brainy, active and enterprising men, and has a great 
trade in almost every product of industry. There 
are no evidences here of any trouble in Ireland. Every 
man and woman in it know that they must make their 
own living or beg or starve, and to their honor, be it 
said, few will beg. The Protestants and Roman 
Catholics are nearly equal, and the respectable portion 



27 



of both sects live quietly and respect each others' re- 
ligion, do business with each other, and live beside each 
other as good neighbors. There is a turbulent class, 
whose whereabouts is well-known, who get up mobs as 
a pastime ; they usually have the name of the two re- 
ligions they mutually disgrace, but seven times out of 
ten their hostilities spring from rum, but for which there 
would be few mobs. Belfast has wide streets and new 
buildings. The architectural effects are good in the 
main. The bricks of which it is built would not be 
thought as good in America as the ordinary " stretchers." 
The clay is porous, the face side of the bricks is rough 
and uneven. The finish is by painting them or plaster- 
ing and then pointing. The bricks have holes through 
them for air passages and the drainage of moisture, 
these are made by pins in the moulds, which avoids 
the necessity of "furring" the walls for plastering. 
They make more use of bricks in ornamentation and with 
better effect than in the United States. Notched bricks 
are placed around the opening of the windows. Dead 
walls are relieved by terra cotta ornaments, smaller pil- 
lars are of the same material, and when large are some- 
times filled in with brickbats, spalls and cement, giving 
the strength of stone at less than a third of the cost. 
The bricks are thicker, and when pointed with cement 
of proper blending are very handsome. We are per- 
suaded in our observations that the splendid bricks of 
Philadelphia would make a finer appearance if they 
were not smaller than four inches thick, and if possible 
five, and pointed up with colored mortar in harmony 
with the dark red. There is more attention given in 
Europe to variety in the corners of buildings ; archi- 
tects here avoid right-angled corners by either rounding 
them or setting them on handsome pillars with elabor- 



28 



ate capitals; often at the second story on the corner a 
little round tower is started and carried above the roof 
and finished as a pinnacle. There are very few wooden 
window-casings; an iron frame, either cast or wrought, 
about as thick as boiler iron, is set in, coming out flush 
with the bricks. Stone fronts are painted in almost 
every neutral tint with fine effect. Fences are made 
from thick bricks with ornamental openings and beau- 
tifully pointed with cement. 

The houses for mechanics and people of limited means 
have more care bestowed on the exterior than in the 
United States, but they do not compare with the per- 
fection within. The suburbs have been the work of cen- 
turies and are of surpassing beauty in those adornments 
which ages only of wealth and culture can create. One 
of the most attractive is on the Loch, at a spot known 
as Craigivad or "seal-rock," where through the hos- 
pitality of Mr. Hanson we spent a day full of delights. 
On the way the site of the castle of Con O'Neil was 
passed on a mountain range, but little of it is left. 
There is a story told of its destruction which illustrates 
one phase of Irish character to perfection. Lord Down- 
shire, who came into possession of the ruin, desired to 
preserve it, and engaged a Celt to put a stone wall 
around it, which he did, and sent for the noble lord to see 
the work when completed. To the nobleman's amazement 
the castle was gone. Said he, " Pat, where is the castle." 
" Plase yer lordship, I tore it clown, and took the stone 
to build the wall." Craigivad, the place of our host, 
overlooks the Loch, giving a view of miles of coast and 
of the Loch, broken into waves by the bows and screws 
of vessels of every kind. 

Near this place is the estate of Lord Dufferin, now 
Governor General of India, known to many of our 



29 

countrymen so favorably as probably the most popular 
governor Canada ever had, a man of vast ability for 
affairs of high moral and religious character, whose 
estimable wife is a great helper to the Foreign Mission 
work in India. One is surprised that he could leave 
such an estate of wealth and beauty and consent to be 
an exile in lands where his only reward must be the 
bettering of the people. Opposite is the more beautiful 
estate, because in better cultivation, known as " Craw- 
fordsburn," owned by Colonel Crawford, a banker of 
Belfast, which lies its whole length on the bay, present- 
ing broad swards of the loveliest green covered with 
God's wealth of flowers. A large portion is thick with 
native forests of pine, trimmed with vines and ivy, in 
which also is a cascade, the waters of which are lighted 
all through the forests at night by electric lights. Op- 
posite Craigivad, across the Loch, is Carrick Fergus, a 
place renowned in civil, military and ecclesiastical his- 
tory. Here the Prince of Orange disembarked for his 
Irish campaign. He slept the second night of his 
march in a little house, still standing, near Belfast, and 
finished his work in the victorious battle with James at 
the Boyne, changing the tide of human events in all 
Europe. But all this can be found in Macaulay's 
pages, and our purpose is to write of things not in the 
guide-books and of events that have not yet become 
historical. 



BLARNEY LAND. 

WHETHER it is from the nearness of the people of 
the South of Ireland to the Blarney-stone or not, 
it is certain that they are an exceptionally polite people. 
It is refreshing to receive their hearty salutes in lan- 
guage so deferential — " Your Reverence," or " My 
Lord," or "Your Ladyship." They please and win 
one at first sight. Even those most revolting in appear- 
ance are transformed from native or acquired ugli- 
ness into another image. It is strange how soon they 
fall into the impudent habits of the worst Americans 
after coming to our shores, and take on airs which 
only make them ridiculous, changing their old identity 
and their attractiveness for a mixture of home and for- 
eign vulgarity. 

It is needless to say that wherever it is possible Ireland 
has been made a garden of beauty. Every kind of flower 
incident to a mild and moist climate grows here in un- 
wonted prodigality. The whin or furze is everywhere, as 
if hereditary lord of the country. Its golden flowers im- 
press one with the thought that this ought to be, if it 
could be so made, the land of gold. The mustard, an- 
other golden blossom, takes possession of the cultivated 
fields and abounds in the meadows and the wheat fields, 
modifying the green swards and conquering for itself the 
right to universal admiration. The daisies dapple all the 
fields with bright, gay colors ; they are as abundant as 
30 



31 

the white clover in springtime in our land. The haw- 
thorn, pink and white, lifts its blossoms and holds them 
up for the admiration of both earth and skies, until the 
fields adorned by it look like orchards in spring blossom- 
ing. These hawthorns are utilized for hedges all along 
the highways, and among their branches are twined 
all kinds of flowering vines with names and nameless; 
trailing roses and eglantine adorn the hedges, peeping 
through every aperture. The ivy covers every thing 
that will endure its affectionate embraces. The trees 
of the forests are covered with it from root to farthest 
branches ; it loves the rugged and barren rocks, and 
hastens to cover their nakedness, thus turning barren- 
ness either into life or to the seeming of it. The wild 
strawberry is on all the scanty soil. On bog and moun- 
tain is the almost oppressive beauty of rhododendrons, 
growing ten and twelve feet high and covered with a 
gorgeous beauty from April to November. 

But time would not suffice to describe the wealth of 
lesser beauties found on rocks and by the water-courses, 
on the highest mountains as well as in the most un- 
seemly bog. Of this class is the fox-glove or digitalis, 
the forget-me-nots, beside a multitude which only the 
most skilled botanist could classify or name. 

This is a country flowing with milk and honey, if 
only the people would care to cultivate it. The cattle 
are lying in the midst of an abundance which their 
owners do not know, and in a sweet content that recalls 
the satisfying pastures of the Psalmist. It is a great 
stock country. Cattle and horses are not large, but pretty 
and fleet ; sheep are of the best quality ; goats run on the 
mountain-sides, shod for rock and soil. The grass grows 
up to the dizzy heights of the mountains, and flowers 
blink from the clouds. The mountains that gird this 



32 

southern country about are nature's dykes against the 
.incoming ocean, and she has not been sparing of the 
material, determined that restless Ireland should not 
again disturb, or be disturbed by, the sea. The face of 
nature is scarred by conflicts; the lightnings have 
been let loose to sharpen their bolts on these gritty 
mountain skulls ; the tornadoes have run wildly against 
these monuments of past conflicts, to feel their hard- 
ness and to retire to the cave of the winds all discom- 
fited ; the clouds have broken their battalions and 
parted for the ends of the earth ; the seas have dashed at 
their bases, and all have been disarmed. The ages 
have left their scars in grooves and wrinkles on the 
everlasting hills of old Ireland. The hills look weary 
and the mountains have scowled until the fierceness of 
the contests seems to be written on their brows. But 
all this does not mar their beauty, for here old age is 
not contemptible — sunsetting has as many beauties as 
sunrising. 

There is no place where all the qualities we have 
vainly labored to describe are in better contrast than 
in County Kerry, and at its most historic centre, Kil- 
9 larney. The town is a sleepy old relic of the past, but 
can still get its old members into lively activity when 
it likes. There is nothing that affects their drowsy 
powers like the vision of a coming American. " Far off 
his coming shines." He is considered a good subject 
for purse recuperation. But even the Killarneyites 
are often sorely disappointed. Some of these have so 
long resisted the subscription book, and collection- 
bags, and mission appeals, and the poverty-stricken 
at home, that even the ingenious beggars of half a 
century or more of experience throw up their hands in 
despair and say, "God have mercy on your stingy 



33 

souls." But the average American succumbs either 
from pity, or through deception, or the gentler titil- 
lation of flattery, and a large harvest is reaped from 
June to November, which must suffice for the year. 

In the streets we found the most terrible specimens of 
humanity — old, ragged, drunken, contorted bundles of 
rags and disgusting humanity, with the worst looking 
mouths ever appended to men or women, and the vilest 
tongues that could wag in such sepulchres. Only cen- 
turies of degradation could breed such amazing objects. 
The streets are also full of dirty children, many of 
whom would be good-looking if clean, but Avho, if they 
were washed, would not be recognized by the inhabi- 
tants, and even their own parents would be as much 
puzzled as is a hen, who has been imposed upon by a 
duck egg, when her fledgling takes to the water as if 
born in it. The streets are crowded with desperate-look- 
ing old men and women ; with the middle-aged, marked 
by the severest struggles of unrewarded toil ; with young 
men and maidens born to the same fierce encounters ; 
children on whose young faces are the shadows of their 
parents' distress, and the forecasts of the same hard 
future. Old carts, old and wheezy horses, asses of all 
sizes, except in ears, which are constant quantities ; 
geese squawking over their petty triumphs, and ducks 
waddling and quacking in content, the only contented 
creatures in all Kerry, are here. 

But withal beauty reigns supreme all around ; nature 
is here a constant delight in all her phases. The moun- 
tains rise in grand proportions, always enveloped in a 
mystic mist, which softens their hard outlines. The skies 
are not transparent, but pale and draped with the thin- 
nest azure. The devil has been baffled in all his efforts to 
reduce this spot to ugliness. If all the people were furies 



34 

it would not mar the beauty of the spot, but there 
are noble, whole-souled people, kind and generous, 
many of them cultivated and courteous. It is the place 
of all we have seen where the best and the worst are 
brought close together ; the authors of both good in- 
fluences and bad meeting in sharp rivalry with each 
other. 

We, of course, had to do the Lakes of Killarney, 
There would be no respect for an American who did 
not make this far-famed pilgrimage. Ignorance is the 
hand-maid to all such endeavors. The first part of the 
' journey is delightful. The roads throughout Ireland 
are of the best, and the country, even in its rugged rims 
of mountains, can be reached by these well-made high- 
ways. The arms of great elms are arched over the 
highways, and fringes of hedges abounding in flowers 
welcome the passing pilgrim. The round is about 
thirty miles, seven of which are made in a carriage. 
But as we near the mountains which stand defying ap- 
proach we see that the only pass between these frowning 
fortresses must be passed on horseback, and here the 
trials of the tourist's life begin. Beggars, peddlers, 
hostlers and steeds of every form, color and capacity 
from the braying donkey, who seems to know by in- 
stinct what part of a conversation to break in upon, 
and horses of ancient and modern style, straight-legged, 
spavined and spring-jointed ; while some are standing on 
three legs holding up the fourth, some alternating be- 
tween the two of one side and the two of the other. Then 
the rigging was excruciating to behold. The side-saddles 
had some two horns and some had one and a half and 
some were unhorned, some were placed on sore backs, 
so that, as the fair one mounted, the horse switched his 
tail and humped himself up or bent down in the mid- 
dle, with an unearthly groan. 



35 

The men had a repetition of the same movements, 
except that all the hinder parts of the steeds rose and 
the foreparts went down, so that the rider's weight was 
set to an angle of forty-five degrees. The owners 
prodded them to gain speed, at the desire of the rider, 
and then there was a nervous switching of the tail, a 
little more uplifting of the vital craft, much as the 
motion of a schooner in the trough of the sea. Then 
there was a great calm, in which the rider braced 
himself in his stirrups to keep from sliding down the 
neck of his steed into the chasm just by. At last the 
steeds are in motion, and the beggars too ; one old fellow 
broke in upon us claiming to be one hundred and seven 
years old, and he looked it every day, but the liveliness of 
his gait chasing the company for his shilling or sixpence 
awakened scepticism; little girls and young women 
follow for a mile as fast as one of these steeds can trot 
before they attain their end, or their heart fails them. 
The fact is most apparent that the gait of the horses 
and of the beggars is geared in concert. One woman 
followed us four miles, going as fast as two good horses 
could jog in a carriage. Her face was the color of 
mahogany, her feet were bare, but hard as a horse's 
hoof, so that the stones on the path did not hurt them. 
When the driver told her that she was wasting her 
time, she said pathetically that this was the hard way 
she had of getting her living, and never gave up the 
chase until some one gave her shilling. 

Many of a much superior caste only begged the com- 
pany to buy stockings of the coarsest kind and trin- 
kets, the workmanship) of their poor hands. A more 
pitiful sight was women with flasks of whiskey and 
goat's milk, urging men to drink for the sake of the 
blessing of the Holy Virgin. This offered bargain 



36 

tells the story of the poverty and shame of these poor 
people. They will drink, drink, everlastingly drink, 
and rum is, and has been for centuries, the oppressor 
of Ireland. With their present drinking and the shift- 
less habits superinduced thereby, they would be no 
better off in the Garden of Eden. It is not the curse 
of the day, but of long weary ages, until it has become 
a misery in the blood, so that multitudes are mort- 
gaged to Satan from their birth. He is that landlord 
who has not been assassinated or boycotted, but who 
nas evicted more from their homes than all the land- 
lordism of the ages. 

The short tour around the Lakes is one of won- 
der, for here nature has in agony brought forth 
marvels. Mountains lift their heads above the level 
of man's petty cares and strifes, and bathe them 
in serene grandeur in the clouds which seem to be 
appointed by heaven as their sole attendants. The 
rocks here are primitive and have fought their way up 
through fiery seas. The pass is narrow, and one grows 
giddy in looking down and is dazed if he look above. 
But the splendid views did not alone beguile the moments 
of our onward progress. The steed which we bestrode 
was famous in the fact that he had been bestridden by 
Dom Pedro, and this was his name. He was a speci- 
men of broken-down nobility — his head had gone down 
so that he carried it not more than two feet from the 
ground, and no jerking of the reins would bring up this 
head of fallen greatness. His forelegs were at least six 
inches too short and a line dropped from his knees 
would have fallen four inches beyond the front of his 
hoof. In this condition one realized that only the 
crupper kept him from the grip of ruin — from sud- 
denly falling to pieces. 



37 

The Lakes themselves are nothing surprising to an 
American, and cannot be compared to Lake George 
and its surroundings. It is doubtful whether the trip 
is worth the exhaustion it requires. It is far better to 
go through the lakes without undertaking the hard 
ride through the pass of Dunloe, unless the tourist has 
an abundance of cash and spirits. The two upper 
Lakes grow more beautiful as they break at the last 
fall into the great Lake Learn, on which is Ross 
Castle, an imposing ruin, the last that surrendered to 
the forces of Cromwell. 

From County Kerry to Dublin is a great plain stretch- 
ing away, covered with the richest green, upon which 
countless cattle are herding. It is a great prairie barri- 
caded by notched, grooved and graceful hills. These 
are in the highest state of cultivation. There are evi- 
dences all the way of its aqueous origin, deposits of sea 
products are to be seen, and those in the lakes are still 
more apparent. Peat is constantly being lifted from 
the bogs. On the way to Dublin crops out the lime- 
stone, a mine of wealth to the builders and farmers ; 
in some parts there is a lime-kiln on every farm, and 
as usual the production is almost exhaustless. 



THE POLITICAL CONDITION OF IRELAND. 

TflHE history of this island seems to follow the mode 
JL of its coming into the world. It was born in the 
tempestuous sea. Whether produced by fire or water, 
or by both, the wise in these matters have not fully de- 
termined. There are several counties which, in their 
present political heat, one might believe to be 
smouldering craters, born in upheavals and continuing 
to upheave. People are as their countries, for from these 
they get their ideals. In Ireland contrasted qualities 
are contiguous — sterility and fruitfulness, ugliness and 
beauty, goodness and wickedness, lofty patriotism and 
the most malignant, conspicuous, wonderful blindness, 
and the most atrocious cruelties. In Ireland are good 
qualities enough, if properly sorted, to form a para- 
dise, and deviltries enough in some spots to locate per- 
dition without any great exodus of the citizens. Loy- 
alty and lawlessness often have hardly so much as a 
hedge fence between them, and these change places 
whenever it suits either patriotism or caprice. 

In seven or eight counties the conditions are chron- 
ically as described, and all phases of them can be ar- 
ranged around the two centres — landlords and tenants ; 
these are the names which represent most of the present 
discontent. Nor are Americans likely to lose from 
their thoughts the real or imputed identity of each, 
and we would say that neither look half so terrible in 
38 



39 

their home as they are represented to us. Ireland, with 
its loyalists hanging fast to England, and its disloyal ele- 
ments hanging fast to America, is not unlike the calf 
which sucked two cows, and was only remarkable for 
becoming in the end a very big calf. The poor peo- 
ple denounce their poorer landlords, who have more 
wants than themselves and less ability to make ends 
meet, because they do not live on their estates; but 
the fact is the estate is not sufficient to sustain the 
tenant even without the payment of rent, and how 
can it maintain both. If the landlords live on their 
estates they will starve ; if they try to get enough out 
of their tenants to exist they will be shot; if they 
stay away they will half starve and be everlastingly 
cursed. 

The people in some counties are miserably poor and 
fretful, and it is only surprising that they are as patient 
as they have been ; then to add to their burdens they 
have so many patriots to look after them. They are 
suffering from politicians as much as from poverty, and 
the politicians are forever taxing them to bring about 
better times. The country is cursed by political blather- 
skites, who must be supported up to their business, 
either as legislators or conspirators. So it stands thus ; 
the landlord with his poor land stands midway between 
starvation and assassination, and the tenant is being 
ground fine between poverty and the politicians. One 
fact becomes more and more apparent — that is, land- 
lordism must go in Ireland, not because the tenants 
will drive it away, but because the land will not sup- 
port the population ; the era for this kind of thing is 
past. 

The present administration has now, after two Crimes 
Bills have been passed, to meet the land question, which 



40 

will try mind, soul, patience and flesh. The landlord has 
the best showing; the government may help him out, or he 
may get rid of his tenants by selling his land to them 
at some price, but will this rid the tenant of his plague, the 
pseudo-philanthropists, who use his woes to replenish 
their pockets at home and in America as well, where 
these pests follow him to consume his substance? There 
is not a possible doubt that Irish tenants in many local- 
ities have been oppressed for weary ages as few slaves 
have been. But to repeat this is little better than senti- 
mentality ; the people who have done this cannot be 
reached, cannot be shot or boycotted. The old rascals 
who laid the foundations for these monumental iniquities 
are dead, and all that is left to the tenant of just revenge 
is to heat their ashes to teach them that there is pun- 
ishment after death. Many of these old roystering 
spendthrifts have entailed ruin alike on their own chil- 
dren and those of their tenants. The fathers have 
eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on 
edge. 

It must not be believed, as some are ever ready to say, 
that this conflict is the revival of the old contests between 
Roman Catholics and Protestants. Among the lower 
classes these class-feuds will live as long as ignorance 
abounds, but this contest goes beyond all this and is 
badly mixed. Roman Catholic landlords have not been 
spared for religion's sake when they undertook compul- 
sory collection of rents, or evictions. It is also useless to 
deny that there is a considerable Protestant element 
deeply dissatisfied at the present state of affairs in Ire- 
land. It may not be wrath specially with landlordism, 
it is ranged rather against English government in Ireland. 
The causes of trouble are hoary with years. Ireland 
has been educated by the British government to a state 



41 

of chronic discontent. It has been the theatre of op- 
pression which bore alike on her Protestant and Roman 
Catholic subjects. The Roman Catholics by their up- 
risings and chronic fretfulness, and often want of wise 
conciliation, have had the worst of it, very likely have 
received just what they would have inflicted on the 
Protestants if they had had the mastery ; in fact, just 
what they have inflicted on them in other places. 

But whether this be true or not, the English gov- 
ernment has gone daft over the absurd notion that 
the Celt cannot govern himself. Government is not a 
gift peculiar to any class. It is an exploded doc- 
trine that kings are born to rule, and therefore ^ 
must rule. We are glad that many of them have 
learned better. Any class of men are able to rule if 
God calls them to it. The Celt has been treated much 
after the style of political morality which has governed 
our treatment of the North American Indian, based 
on the idea that " the only good Indian is the dead 
Indian." 

The English people overlooked, in their blind passion 
for governing Ireland by coercion, the fact that the only 
safe way of national unification is to educate into the pre- 
vailing form of religion when religion is a part of the 
State arrangement, and the Head of the State is the 
Head of the Church. If the government of Great 
Britain had spent half of the money in evangelizing 
Ireland which it has spent in cudgeling Ireland there 
would be no national antipathies. The Roman Catho- 
lics would have been as readily made Protestant as 
the Hottentots or Indiamen — peaceable Protestant 
Christians. The Protestant Episcopal Church had an 
independent support in Ireland for centuries ; how 
much concern did it give to saving Roman Catholic 



42 

children ? If it had even cared for these, and gath- 
ered them into homes as is being done for the poorer 
classes now in London, the problem would have been 
very different. 

Nor are the dissenting Churches in Ireland alto- 
gether free from blame, though they have been greatly 
crippled by the Establishment. If they had wrought in 
Ireland as they are doing in India, Africa and China, 
there would have been just as much progress in soul- 
saving, and the result would have been far different in 
unhappy Ireland. That we may not be judged vision- 
ary or severe, take our Indians for an example. No 
ordinary man would have dared to assert forty years ago 
that the Indians, for whose destruction we were pay- 
ing millions annually, could be Christianized and civil- 
ized. Only General Grant, in the flush of his military 
renown, could suggest a peace policy as the best for the 
Indians and ourselves. We are not making these com- 
parisons to undervalue the Eoman Catholic Church, 
but to show how, by peaceful and Christian means, the 
alien Irish people could have been brought into unity 
with the English people. The Roman Catholic Church 
might have been as strong as it is now, but more 
widely distributed throughout the kingdom. 

That there is a sense of wrong inflicted by the English 
government in the breasts of both Protestants and 
Roman Catholics, is beyond question, and were it not 
for their bitter religious hostilities in the past they 
would make common cause, as would the Dissenters 
and Romanists in England. Establishment and dissent 
cannot live in the same coimtry, except as one is the 
servant of the other, and everybody in the British 
kingdom has felt the domination of the Establishment. 
The outrages, corrected mainly since Queen Victoria's 



43 

reigu began, show the intolerable oppression which dis- 
senters of all kinds had to endure. At the beginning 
of Queen Victoria's reign Dissenters could not be legally 
married except in the Church of England, and by a 
clergyman of that Church, nor could they have the 
births of their children legally registered, nor could 
they bury their friends in any church-yard, or public 
or parochial cemetery, by their own ministers and by 
their own rites. At that time there was no admission 
of Nonconformists to the so-called National Universi- 
ties. Nor could a Dissenter, however distinguished for 
genius or learning, obtain any degree except on condi- 
tion of violating his conscience and renouncing his 
faith, perhaps in the very place where it was sealed by 
martyr blood. No Jew could sit in Parliament with- 
out debauching his conscience. All Nonconformists 
were bound to pay rates to support the fabrics and ser- 
vices of the Church of England, and those who dared 
resist these exactions, which made our American heroes 
go to war, contending against taxation without repre- 
sentation, were liable to have their chairs, tables, their 
silver spoons, and even their Bibles seized and sold at 
auction. Even the marriage law, which has been 
enacted since Her Majesty's reign, permitting Noncon- 
formists to be married by their own ministers in their 
own churches, had on it the stigmatizing mark of 
inequality which they are even now trying to remove, 
and the opponents to all these poor, meagre concessions, 
wrung like blood out of the government, were in the 
Established Church. 

The fact of the unmistakable loyalty of Dissenters 
on the battle-field, and in every duty, is one of those 
paradoxes which can only be referred to the power of 
the sovereign grace of God, and not to any grace 



44 

from the ecclesiastical government of England. Nor 
is this all. After unavailing efforts, extending over 
thirty-three years, in 1880 the grave-yards were forced 
open for the burial of the dead of the Dissenters, of 
whom a large proportion of the noblest defenders of 
Great Britain are numbered. The children of General 
Havelock, whose monument adorns Trafalgar Square, 
who saved India, could not have been buried, previous 
to this crowbar-act by which the gates were pried open, 
in any of these privileged grave-yards, over whose por- 
tals the bishops and the priests of the Established Church 
of Jesus Christ stood as a police with bludgeons. Nor 
is this act any more than a partial fragment now, which 
justice will correct yet. But justice will have to fight 
churchmen all the way to the end, as Havelock fought 
the Sepoys at Lucknow. 

The Irish Catholics, therefore, are not the only people 
who have fought a lifetime against oppressions of the 
Establishment. The abolition of the church rates levied 
on Nonconformists was carried on in a life-and-death 
struggle of thirty-four years, during which period many 
of these people took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, 
and not a few suffered fines and imprisonment as well. 
The Irish race need not be discouraged in a fight in 
the House of Commons for some recognition of their 
wrongs when they remember that bills for abolishing 
Nonconformists' humiliations were carried seven times 
in the House of Commons and as often rejected in 
the House of Lords. The trouble with the Irish is 
that they defeat themselves by their violence and con- 
spiracies. Honesty and justice will stand beside them, 
so far as public sentiment is concerned, if they mean 
to get rid of the burdens only in a legal way, or as 
O'Connell long ago advised them, by "Agitation," and 



45 

agitation by means of reason and not by dynamite. 
Nothing has ever been gained yet by pulling down 
pillars because rascality and oppression have perched 
upon them. 

We have dwelt thus on the recorded efforts of the 
Establishment in England, where the majority are sup- 
posed to be pleased with it, to give clearer insight into 
the harvest of ills sown while it existed in Ireland, 
where the majority was oppressed by the minority. 
One of our surprises was to hear Dissenters in Ireland 
denouncing the discontent of the Romanists now, when 
seventeen years ago we heard a wail of long-wearied 
discontent, crying for deliverance from the Establish- 
ment. The same and worse afflictions than those re- 
ferred to in the history of the dealing of the English 
government with English Dissenters were inflicted on 
Romanists and Protestants in Ireland. Protestants and 
Roman Catholics have been excluded alike from the 
honors of the so-called National Universities. This 
led to the founding of institutions of their own, made 
a necessity by this unjust exclusion. An Established 
minority, smaller than either Roman Catholic or Pro- 
testant, favored with the protection of law in privi- 
leges offensive to the majorities, and the social oppres- 
sions made by this legal segregation and patronage — 
all these and innumerable petty tyrannies too small 
to be described, but big enough to torment to des- 
peration, caused hatreds and wide separations. 

It is surprising how, in political excitements, ex- 
tremes will meet. We heard in the General Assembly 
in Ireland, from the lips of several speakers heartily 
sympathizing with the present British government, com- 
plaints, loud and bitter, that the Presbyterian Church had 
been neglected in the past, and that any favors it had 



46 

received were tortured out of the government as the 
importunate widow gained the advantage of considera- 
tion on account of her continued coming ; and more 
we heard, in words both eloquent and true, that the 
government was continuing this same petty policy. 
The Rev. Professor Pettigrew called attention to the 
recent appointment of a head-inspector wnere, he said, 
a Protestant Episcopalian was appointed over the heads 
of Presbyterians notoriously his superior, and when it 
was the turn of the Presbyterians to have one of their 
number appointed. The Rev. Dr. Hanna did not 
hold that the National Board was infallible; but 
with regard to the appointment referred to, he did 
not believe that Presbyterianism was at all con- 
sidered. The Rev. Professor Robinson held that the 
Presbyterians had suffered all along the line in the 
past, and were still the despised and down-trodden of 
the country. They never got fair play from Dublin 
Castle in the appointments, and he did not believe they 
could expect it until they went manfully forward and 
wrung it out of the leaders. 

It sounded not a little strange, and if possible more 
suggestive, to hear the most loyal and disloyal alike 
denouncing in strongest terms the long, exasperating, 
petty tyrannies they had suffered either through the 
Establishment while it lived, or by the wriggling of its 
dying tail. Nor have any of them suffered more than 
the Established Church herself, for by this the king- 
dom is full of bitter enmities, crippling her in her 
work. A single instance will suffice to illustrate. The 
stronghold of Mr. Gladstone's power outside of 
Ireland is the devotion of the Scotch. And who 
among the Scotch churches most closely adhere to 
him? Every Church but the Established — the 



47 

Free Church because they desire Disestablishment; 
the United Presbyterian for the same reason, and the 
same is no doubt true of all the rest. We do not say 
this to urge the necessity, or even the advisability of 
Disestablishment, for these Churches were never doing 
their work better than now, but to show how much of 
the political discontents in Great Britain have come, 
reasonably and unreasonably, from this source. 

We now come back to the present condition of Ire- 
land. Our apparent digression was to reach the roots of 
the present movements. We fear that the moral sensi- 
bilities of a portion of Ireland are hopelessly paralyzed ; 
there is little shuddering over brutal murder in not a 
few places ; it is spoken of as a war policy of a strug- 
gling nation against oppression. Assassination in sev- 
eral districts of Ireland produces no lasting sense of dis- 
honor. It began as a remedy against obnoxious land- 
lords, but the outlaws are practising it now among 
themselves as a police regulation extraordinary. 

During the time we were in Kerry a man was 
butchered because somebody suspected an objectionable 
intimacy between him and a widow, in whose house he 
was stabbed to death by a band of regulators of public 
morals ; and this is not an isolated case. As to rights 
to be enforced on estates, nobody thinks of them 
seriously; the landlord must demit; and as to com- 
pensation, that is a joke of course. There are noble 
exceptions, but this is unmistakably the undertone. 
The justification is that the landlords did not come 
by the estates honestly — that is, their ancestors were 
crooked, and therefore their children are fair game. 
The condition of affairs is made worse in the fact 
that the Roman Catholic Church is dominated by 
this element, and when the foundations are removed 



43 

what can the righteous do ? The Church does not ex- 
ercise the discipline, in this condition of things, which 
will punish or correct the debauched consciences of 
its members. This is not universally so in this 
Church, for there are many who abhor it, but they are 
not able to change it, and they argue that if they lose 
entire sympathy with the people all power for their 
future good will be gone. 

Then beyond all that we have stated is the deep 
hopelessness, the causes of which lie beyond the power 
of either the government or the people. Ireland 
has 32,000 square miles of territory, and what is this 
among so many, when its wastes, its sterile mountains 
and "barren heaths ar.e estimated. Think of more than 
five millions of people living on a little more than 
26,000 or 28,000 square miles of fertile land, and much 
of this worn down by centuries of exhausting farming. 
It is an impossibility, and all thoughts of Ireland as an 
independent government, with the increased expenses 
of the machinery of self-government, an army and 
navy, &c, to keep out of international broils, whose 
destructive circles would ever be whirling around her, is 
too ridiculous even to be absurd. 

There are other hardships which are inevitable under 
any government, and which are felt alike all over the 
kingdom. Britain long ago adopted free trade and 
worked it then for all that it was worth, but she has 
worked it out, so that the sharp end of it is turned to- 
ward herself. Free trade might be equitable on all 
sides if all nations would adopt it, but England has 
come to the time when the penalties of free trade have 
come home to stay. Canada is destroying her farmers 
by its trade in cattle; Ireland is a cattle-growing 
country ; her moist climate affords the best and most 



49 

constant pasturage in the kingdom, and now when 
there is a drouth which extends over England and Ire- 
land alike, the poor farmers have, in summer time, to 
put their cattle in competition with ship-loads of cattle 
from Canada, and can get hardly any thing for them. 
This is, of course, exceptionally severe, for when they have 
had abundance of pasture they could keep back their 
cattle to the winter, when Canada is frozen up. But 
even the ice of the winter cannot help them much now, 
for the dressed beef trade of the United States is con- 
stantly impoverishing them. This is an effect of free 
trade which Cobden had not the gift of prophecy to 
foresee. 

American machinery is crowding in at another angle. 
An Englishman said: — "Your clever American me- 
chanics are playing the mischief with our poor people; 
even our bird cages are left unsold and neglected, and 
our sons and daughters do not want any more of those 
clumsy cages of wood and wire, but must have your 
delicate gilt wire, so ornamental to our walls." The 
next invasion, we hope, will be in the line of baby car- 
riages, or, as our English cousins say, " Perambulators." 
They are great clumsy wooden vehicles, covered with 
coarse, black oil-cloth, nearly as heavy as an American 
buggy and twice as ugly. These illustrations have 
come under our eye, and are not given in the interest 
of tariff or no tariff, but to show how much greater 
difficulties confront Ireland and England than any 
that can affect the people either by wise and unwise 
government. The same is true of the milling interests. 
Mills, like landlordism, have ground themselves out; 
neither will ever be institutions again. Mills in Ire- 
land worth thousands of pounds will never trundle a 
wheel again. India is the plague of the farmer in the 



50 

kingdom of Great Britain, so that the empire is devour- 
ing the kingdom, or the head biting the tail ; the only 
comfort is that as the resources of each are different 
they do it turn about. 

A rich miller said: — "I have given up my mills, I 
can buy the flour cheaper than the wheat ; I have be- 
come a flour dealer, instead of a manufacturer, but," 
said he sadly, " what is to become of nearly all the 
capital I have invested in my mills?" More people 
are thus going to the wall than landlords and tenants, 
but we do not hear of them in politics. Yet it must 
not be taken for granted that England is going back- 
ward, nor is Ireland getting, on the average, poorer. 
The city of London increases 100,000 a year, the city 
of Belfast is constantly growing, wealth is increasing in 
bulk and is being better distributed. The poverty is 
largely due to the changes made by redistribution of 
wealth. " Old things have passed away and behold all 
things are becoming new." We witness the same 
changes in our own new country. In the towns on the 
New England coast, where whale-fishing was the lead- 
ing business, wealth abounded; but when petroleum 
was discovered the population of these once thrifty 
towns were scattered, and many well-to-do were im- 
poverished, so that now many of these are the deadest 
places on the continent. There seems to be a general 
scttling-up of old accounts in the world, and a general 
redistribution of vital forces and of wealth, their crea- 
tion. 

Ireland is better off in many ways than it was 
seventeen years ago, when we first visited it. One is 
constantly surprised at the improvement in the quality 
of the material and taste shown in clothing of the labor- 
ing classes. The women put better shawls over their 



51 

heada only few are without shoes, children are better 
dressed. Their house3 are better ; they are not palaces, 
but they are on an average twenty per cent, better. 
When they can get work they are better paid for it, 
and they do not drink as much grog, which has always 
been the curse of the country. The children are better 
educated, and there is greater desire on the part of the 
poor people that their children shall read. We en- 
countered a bevy of little girls in the mountains of 
Kerry; each with but a single garment, a frock, but 
their faces were clean and hair combed ; they were not 
begging, though it could easily be seen that a little 
gift would be acceptable. We asked, " How many of 
you can read?" and to our surprise they all said they 
could, and were as proud as princesses over it. When 
we had passed them, on the lonely mountain-side we 
found a little chisel-faced stone school-house of the 
government regulation pattern, and this told the secret. 
Some cities, from one cause or another, are losing 
their financial and commercial importance. If there is 
not a change soon for the better Dublin will be hope- 
lessly doomed. It is the brain of all discontent ; the best 
and worst of Ireland's people have lived there, but the 
worst is getting the ascendency, and they are driving 
capital and enterprise away on account of the insecur- 
ity felt by capitalists. Capital is ever sensitive, and it 
has always, sooner or later, the means of locomotion. 
The Mayor is on the side of the discontented, and of 
course, the government is on the other. The Board of 
Trade, made up of Roman Catholics, Frotestants and 
non-religionists, are against the Home Rulers' policy, 
so far, at least, as it represents disunion, because they 
have every thing to lose. We have been informed by 
reliable Catholics that the people who own property in 



52 

cities and towns are against every thing that looks in 
the direction of independent government. But men of 
property, Romanists and Protestants, want more con- 
siderate legislation. They want the right to manage 
their own local affairs. They are worn out with the 
crippling process of having to go to Parliament if they 
want to locate a road or change a street. There is 
remarkable agreement, when their heads are cool, all 
over the island, in the desire for better and more help- 
ful legislation, and this can be gained, and will be, if 
it is fought out within the lines of the present realm 
of Great Britain. Reforms must be in tolerable har- 
mony with the sentiments of all the true lovers of Ire- 
land ; any thing further will forever make her a prey 
to the worst oppressions of England, as Ireland's dis- 
sensions first brought her under England's rule. 

The last feature we mention, and perhaps the most 
momentous fact to lovers of Celtic nationality, is that 
plainly the Celtic race will never come to national 
supremacy. It is too late ; it must be absorbed, and 
we say this in no want of sympathy with every noble 
effort to avert it. The Celt is going the way of all 
races who have lived out their day, going into other 
nationalities to build up a newer and better life from 
the fragments of the past. The Saxon is a living illus- 
tration of this necessary union of national fragments. 
It will be a long time before this will be accomplished, 
but the motion is in this direction. Ireland is too small 
for Ireland, and her sons and daughters, at the rate of 
twenty thousand a year, will be tempted away after 
their kindred in foreign lands, or after better condi- 
tions of life. There, by intermarriage and other 
changes incident to the existence of a dominant race, 
they will be absorbed. There is no help for this ten- 



53 

dency, as Ireland has not in herself the sustenance 
even to resist it, much less conquer it. Meanwhile, the 
Koman Catholic and Protestant faiths will live only 
as they agree in not worrying and vexing each other. 
Separations will help some, and it is to be hoped God's 
grace of charity will do more. If not, an event quite 
as sad, perhaps, the persecutions which both may re- 
ceive yet from the haters of all religion, may bring 
them nearer in sympathy through a common suffering. 
In these letters we have, from our standpoint and 
with somewhat limited advantages, aimed only at fair- 
ness; we have talked with both parties, ministers, 
priests and laymen ; all have alike been communica- 
tive as to their several grievances, and we are sure that 
we have been enlightened and profited by what we have 
seen and heard. Whether we shall be able to do as 
much for our readers is yet an unanswered question. 



THE YEAR OF JUBILEE. 

WE have come to London in the year of Queen 
Victoria's Jubilee. It could not have been 
a more joyous occasion to the old Israelite than this 
Jubilee has been to all Britain. There are soreheads and 
croakers, of course ; they are necessary factors in the 
problems of life; by their disharmonies they in- 
crease the effect of harmonies. There are, also, senti- 
mentalists who have hung their harps on the willows, 
and refuse to take any part in the general rejoicings. 
There are many unhappy because they are not direct- 
ing the affair, and pity the nation that its rejoicings are 
so clumsily managed. The Irish, who hate every thing 



54 

English, are like the spoiled boy sitting on the stairs 
and refusing to come to his breakfast because "Sal 
would not pacify him," and are making a great mistake. 
The biggest fools of earth are the martyrs who cannot 
make martyrdom pay in some form. The Queen has 
not been the author of the Irishman's wrongs ; she has 
signed every bill, so far as we know, for their betterment. 
It is ungracious toward a woruan who has maintained 
a pure life through fifty years — who has had morally 
the most illustrious reign on the pages of history. 
Moreover, it is ungallant, which contravenes all our 
notions of Irish character. It has made a chasm, 
which will not, in the memory of the living, be bridged 
over, between the ill-advised who took counsel of their 
own hotheadedness and prejudices, and those in Scot- 
land and England who sympathized "with them and 
were willing to help in every constitutional way to 
the removal of their burdens and the enlarging of 
their opportunities for progress, but who will not insult 
a beneficent sovereign to accomplish it. Even to the 
most casual observer there can be no mistake about the 
loyalty of all to the Queen, excepting Anarchists, So- 
cialists and Irish Home Rulers. Even if these last 
hated the Queen it was bad policy to show it. It has 
divorced them from the sympathies of those who have 
served them. It has given their enemies the plausible 
charge against them, that their struggles are not for 
liberty, but are a conspiracy against the government 
itself. It will associate them, in the minds of those who 
have no opportunities to look beneath the surface of 
things, with Nihilists, Anarchists, Communists, et id 
genus omne. 

The troubles of Great Britain seem more serious in 
America than here — the ocean seems to act as a magnify- 



ing mirror. Correspondents are narrow and often reck- 
less in their statements. We read in a Philadelphia paper 
this morning that the Prince of Wales never expects 
to come to the throne. If one were writing to illustrate 
his absolute idiocy he could not have done better. 
Who has heard the Prince say this ? and if he did say 
so, what probability is there of it, unless death or some 
unforeseen event shall cut him off. The English people 
have no such idea ; they speak of him as their future 
sovereign, they cheer him on all occasions as such. 
They talk sharply about him, but who does not know 
that this is an Englishman's way ; he does not like any 
thing over which he cannot grumble. But woe unto 
the man who joins in his denunciation. The Prince 
has grown in favor with the English people as he has 
grown in knowledge and become a more thoughtful 
man. He is developing a great ability in the manage- 
ment of affairs. His management of this great Jubilee 
shows the power of no ordinary mind. 

That the English will ever turn to a Republican 
form of government will only be possible in the 
millennium, if it ever occurs. It is far more likely that 
our own people of America will be possessed with the 
ideas of aristocracy. Wealth, with its fooleries and un- 
real distinctions, certainly tends in this direction. An 
Englishman's soul has a throne in the centre of it, and 
a king or queen upon it ; he does not know of any other 
form of life ; he will not hear or think of any other, 
and the discontented Irish in this respect are just like 
him. The English nation grows stronger. Never in 
its history has she had the elements of moral and 
mental power as largely as now. Notwithstanding we 
hear of depressions in trade, there never was more 
equally distributed wealth. Ireland is distressed, but 






56 

not half so much as when we were in it seventeen years 
ago. We have been surprised at the increased evidence 
of prosperity all over Ireland, where it is possible for 
men and women to live at all. There are considerable 
portions of the island where human beings can never live ; 
there is not enough on five acres to support a goat. No 
government can make things better, unless powdered 
rocks can be utilized so as to produce brains, muscle 
and flesh. Wheiever there are any possibilities, with 
the exception of a very few counties, the people are 
better housed, better fed and clothed, and better 
schooled, than they were seventeen years ago. This 
does not prove that they are all in Paradise, but that 
even the poverty and ignorance of seventeen years ago 
have been greatly modified. 

In Wales the same is true even to a greater extent. 
We speak of this because they were originally Celts ; 
their country is not as good, on the average, as Ireland. 
They have more and larger manufacturing interests, 
and drink less rum, which must answer for much of 
Irish poverty and wretchedness. 

The Jubilee has tended to centralize and unify Eng- 
lish power. The subjects of the Queen are here from 
all parts of the realm, and from the colonies. It has 
been a wonderful time of reunions, after years of sepa- 
rations, among friends. Socially it has been as great an 
event as politically. Multitudes have availed them- 
selves of this occasion to come back to the homes of 
their youth, and to gather up the broken links of rela- 
tionships and friendships. Most of them have come to 
see old England for the last time, and not a few to look 
for the last time on the. face of the Queen, so young 
and attractive fifty years ago. We have not any- 
where seen so many old and respectable people gath- 



57 

ered together, talking over the events of their childhood, 
when the Queen, as the Scotch say, was but a " win- 
some lassie." 

The world has rolled around and opened to our 
view a bright page in English history. The illustrious 
woman whom the good of all the world honor was 
born on the 24th of May, 1819, in the old Palace of 
Kensington. She was the daughter of the Duke of 
Kent and the Princess Victoria Maria Louisa, of Saxe 
Coburg, who had been married the previous year in 
Germany, by the Lutheran rite, and two months later 
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the presence of 
the royal family. She was baptized in the drawing- 
room of Kensington Palace, where she afterwards held 
her first council. When six months old she lost her 
father, and was left to the sole care of her mother, an 
accomplished and elegant woman, who remained in 
England and brought up her daughter in severe sim- 
plicity. For three months a princess, born to the Duke 
of Clarence, stood between her and the throne ; but this 
child died. For years she was kept in ignorance of the 
possibilities of her life ; but when it was thought to be 
best to make it known to her by her governess, she 
said, " I will be good. Many would boast, but it has 
great responsibilities ; and I now understand why you 
have urged me to learn so many things." Her uncle, 
William IV., the " Sailor King," died, and in the early 
dawn of June 20th, 1837, her two royal uncles, the 
Dukes of Sussex and Cumberland, the two Archbishops, 
the Premier and Lord Cottenham knocked at the gate 
of Kensington Palace, while the young Queen was yet 
asleep, and announced her succession. Half awake, 
and clad only in her night-robes and a shawl, she re- 
ceived the call to her country's service which she has 
for fifty years so faithfully fulfilled. 



53 

The first effect of the Queen's succession was to give 
the whole kingdom the influenza. It is a matter of 
history that everybody had it badly. One is reminded 
of the beginning of the administration of our own mar- 
tyred Lincoln, which was signalized by his having the 
varioloid, which, when it was revealed to him, he turned, 
as usual, to good practical account. He had been 
tormented beyond endurance by hordes of office-seekers, 
and as the doctor told him his disease, he said, " I am 
glad of it, for I have now something I can give to 
everybody." The influenza in England was so wide- 
spread that the offices of the civil service departments 
were deserted. Business of all kinds was suspended, 
because merchants, bankers, doctors all had it. At 
Woolwich fifty men of the royal artillery and engineers 
were taken into the hospital daily. 

In this year, also, the earth's surface was contracted 
by the shortening of the distance across it by the estab- 
lishment of steam communication with India, by the 
Red Sea, coming into harbor at Suez. Twenty days 
brought the mails from Bombay to Alexandria, and 
the time from Bombay to England was reduced to 
forty-two days. In this year, too, an embassy from the 
King of Madagascar arrived, and was presented at 
court. One of the embassy was a Hova, a man of 
years, dark-skinned and intelligent, and being for his 
peoples' sake desirous of making a good impression, he 
recalled many incidents of his long journey around the 
Cape in a sailing-vessel. When he had told all he 
could recollect, he asked if it would be agreeable to have 
him sing. He said he would sing a song that had 
whiled away many a weary hour in life's pilgrimage. 
Of course, all begged the venerable, dark-visaged old 
man to sing, expecting something heathenish or na- 



59 

tional, something social or convivial ; perhaps a street 
song or a love ditty of this far-off land. But to their 
astonishment, and affecting not a few to tears as they 
saw the coming back of seed sown on the waters in 
missionary faith and zeal, he began in a thin, sweet 
tenor, in correct time and with the best effect, 

"Rock of Ages, clelfc for me, 
Let me hide myself in Thee." 

He sang it throughout all its stanzas, each verse and 
line growing more subdued and tender. Afterward 
there was a deep, profound, awkward silence which it 
was difficult to break. " His name," says the reporter 
of that day, "was as startling in length as his perform- 
ance was surprising — Right Honorable Lord Raini- 
ferongalarovo." He was not a Christian, but a cap- 
tive to its divine power and comforted by its solaces 
before he had yielded his life to its control. What 
changes hath God wrought in the life of the illustrious 
woman, loved by her people, but also revered wherever 
the gospel has gone ! Her nation, by arms and diplo- 
macy, has opened wide doors of opportunity to the mis- 
sionary of the cross. Madagascar is now a jewel in 
Christ's crown, one of the most wonderful of great con- 
quests, without sword or blood, over a brave Christian 
and heroic people, who challenge the admiration of the 
world for their unconquerable patriotism, the peerless 
sacrifices they have made for their country and their 
faith — the crown of both never more resplendent than 
when on the head of a fearless and devoted woman. 
The Hovas still live, and every Christian patriot will 
pray that they may yet humble France and drive her 
in dishonor from their shores. 

The progress of Great Britain in these fifty years 
baffles all calculation by figures. The accession of ter- 



60 

ritory manifests the gratification of British instinct. 
It is not the fruit simply of a desire for acquisition of 
territory adjacent, but any spot, barren or fruitful, sand 
deserts or rock ledges, extinct craters, or any thing that 
British feet can stand upon, or any thing that will take 
form in British imagination, is to them worth getting by 
purchase, stealth, or by conquest. Cyprus was taken, not 
because of any special service, but because it might be- 
come so. Aden, at the mouth of the Red Sea, in case 
of contest for empire in the East, would come, as some 
of our countrymen say, "mighty handy," for the same 
or better reasons. Hindoostan was annexed, and last 
of all the whole of Burmah. So the little island of 
Hong Kong was taken from China. Nobody could 
then see just why; it was done by the English instinct, 
and is now a stronghold of the British Empire. And 
when she cannot get all she takes a part, and getting 
her head, in the problem is solved as to the locality of her 
extremities. In this class are Borneo and New Guinea: 
Australia, which was but little better than a penal 
prison fifty years ago, unknown to England as to the 
rest of the world, is now a populous and prosperous 
empire of itself. New Zealand was not of sufficient 
importance at the accession of the Queen to have even 
a map of its own, and now it is among the Colonial 
stars that sparkle in Victoria's crown. She has push- 
ed her way into Africa, and has there in process of 
Christianization and civilization in the South, Natal, 
Orange, Free State, the Transvaal, BechuarmaLand, 
&c. Egypt has been brought practically under the 
British crown. While there is sharp playing on the 
great national chess-board for this stake, England has 
it, and England keeps what she clutches; there has 
been only one great exception, over which we say, 
"Thank God !"— America. 



61 

The croaking is heard here which we so often hear, 
to wit, that the British Empire must fall to pieces 
from its own weight. Rome is the raw head and 
bloody bones of these lamentations. But the Romans 
were not Anglo-Saxons, nor are we English-speaking 
peoples living in the cycles of national decay. We 
heard all this, during the Mexican war, regarding our 
own country. One of the greatest orators and states- 
men our country ever saw dug his own grave by it and 
heaped the clay upon himself in one of the most elo- 
quent and classic speeches ever uttered. Extension of 
territory has been the life of England, for it has brought 
with it the extension of the Christian religion, civiliza- 
tion, better government, Christian humanities, exten- 
sion of knowledge in all its departments. Discoveries 
have walked in the wake of her victories, and a wider 
dissemination of education both at home and abroad. 
In this half century of territorial aggrandizement Eng- 
land has opened up one-third part of Africa and 
handed it over to Christian civilization. Science, 
stimulated in these movements, has discovered the 
source of the Nile, traced the great Congo from its 
source to its mouth, explored the whole of Southern 
Africa, and discovered the great African lakes known 
only to the Jesuits of the seventeenth century. Except 
the unprecedented march in our own great country, 
there is nothing like it in the history of the world. 

This progress has not been constant. England has 
staggered backwards more than once; the waves of 
progress have broken and flowed backward and been 
lost to observation ; but these have re-formed and 
rolled up to the highest tidemark of to-day. After the 
terrific conflict with the French, ending with the battle 
of Waterloo, England began to feel a reaction from 



62 

long wasting. Croakers at that time prophesied further 
decay of trade to England, and of times when the fisher- 
men would dry their nets on her wharves. The echoes 
of this we often hear from American pessimists, with 
whom the wish is generally father of the thought. 
The enormous national debt ha3 been fully dilated 
upon, the extravagance of the government, &c. These, 
dark enough, but to which could be added a hundred 
more, it was said, would rupture England and cast her 
into the sea. These were evil prophesies of her own 
people. But no such calamities have come; and why? 
First, God is not done with England, nor her Protes- 
tant religion, nor her Protestant enterprise and civiliza- 
tion, nor her Christian propagandism, nor her inventive 
genius, inspired by the vitality and activity of her 
faith. God works in mysterious ways, while sin over- 
reaches itself. Corruption consumes itself. Great sins 
stimulate great virtues, great extravagances waste a 
nation's substance and are followed by great economies, 
by which strong generations are reared out of the decay 
of the generations preceding. 

The British national life seems to us to be directed 
somewhat after the policy of an eminent lawyer who 
was overwhelmed with professional business, and who 
was asked how he got through with it. He said, 
" Well, I wait till much of it does itself, then I do 
some of it, and the rest never gets done." An Eng- 
lishman will go on suffering wrongs, staggering under 
anomalies until relief comes of itself in some sudden 
surprise, and often from an opposite direction from the 
objective point of national effort. He generally disap- 
points the croakers. 



THE GREAT DAY. 

I N the morning of June 21st the shout of jubilee broke 
forth in London from almost every thing that 
could make a jubilant noise. Salvos of artillery, steam- 
whistles from the river and rail, bells of every kind, 
chimes, in song and clangor, for hours sent up to the skies 
their glad, if not musical, notes. Bands in quick succes- 
sion traversed the streets ; bagpipes, accordions, mouth- 
organs, violins and harps, jew's-harp and penny trumpets, 
drums, songs by sailors on the crafts, on the streets, in the 
drinking houses were heard ; busses, cabs and street-cars 
passed along filled with men and women shouting, " God 
save the Queen!" Great organs pealed forth in 
the almost countless churches. Thousands of devout 
and loyal hearts chanted in church and chapel the 
royal and loyal Psalms of David. Prayer, thanks- 
giving and praise from all went up in the name 
of the God of England, her strength and protector, 
the strong tower and refuge of his saints. Every 
thing that had history connected with it was remem- 
bered. England's monuments of the good and great 
were visited. Even Smithfield had its tributes of the 
living to read the inscriptions on the monuments 
of those who had given life to maintain the faith 
and freedom which now make England so strong and 
great. 

The grave of John Bunyan in Bunhill Fields was not 
overlooked, nor were any of the places where pillories, 
63 



61 

burnings and beheadings marked the moral progress of 
the nation to its Jubilee under its Christian Queen. 
The city was crammed. The air was heavy with hot, 
eager, human breaths. The crowds of the living were 
dense and apparently motionless, yet their motion was 
involuntarily toward Westminster, for in the jam there 
was no safety except to sway with it. Multitudes stood 
at Trafalgar Square and at Westminster, and for a 
radius of miles around, from six in the morning to half- 
past ten for a view of the first installment of nobility — 
the notables of the army from England, India and her 
colonies, in which Lord Wolseley was by no means a 
striking figure. In this group passed the carriage of the 
Indian Princess Maharajah Halkar and the Thakore 
Sahib of Marvi and suite. Then passed the Queen 
of Hawaii and attendants in cloth of gold ; then Prin- 
cess Francis and Alexander of Teck, 

As far as the eye could reach even the walls were 
festooned with loyal life ; men and women stood in win- 
dows, filled balconies, men hung from the sides of the 
walls, clung to the lightning rods, hung to turnbuckles, 
stood on the frames of awnings, climbed to the pinnacles 
and roofs of the Abbey, sat on the sharp iron points of 
the high fences on the wall around the Abbey. The 
police could not club them off, or if they did it was 
that they might climb up again. Men hung to the 
great rings in the mouths of the lion heads pro- 
jecting from the walls and gates. Men hired out their 
backs and shoulders for a shilling for five minutes to 
hold up the Zaccheuses of the multitude. The roofs 
everywhere groaned under enthusiastic life bent on 
seeing the Queen. One of Punch's witticisms on the 
day before was realized. A nobleman advertised to let 
three chimney pots, as they are called here, (with us terra 



63 

cotta tops). Two of these pots were advertised at five 
guineas each, the third pot at the reduced price of three 
guineas, because of the necessity of keeping the kitchen 
fire burning to prepare dinner. The thrust will be seen 
as two-edged, one cuts the trafficking instinct of the 
nobility and the other is aimed at the fools who have 
been wild for places. 

This Jubilee has been marked in every step of its 
progress, not only by the respect of the people for their 
sovereign, but for themselves. In all that crowd of 
nearly two millions of people, waiting in weariness and 
intense heat for the coming of their Queen, there was 
no disorder or drunken demonstrations. Men and 
women were fainting and were carried off by the police 
on stretchers; not less than one hundred such cases 
were within our observation, yet not an arrest was made 
of a drunken disturber. The purpose to keep their 
best offerings for the Queen was also as marked as all 
their other modes of respect. They cheered moderately 
the great personages, but a better demonstration was kept 
from even her children for the more venerated mother. 
Part of the royal family of children and grand-children 
passed before her. Foreign princesses of the blood 
and foreign rulers were mostly in state carriages, which 
are closed. But the Queen made a departure in regard 
to herself and children, ordering open barouches for 
them that the people might have the fullest opportunity 
to behold them. Moie handsome women cannot be 
found, as members of one family, in the world. They 
are all fair with well-shaped faces, none yet showing 
the family tendency of the George's to obesity. The 
male portion of the royal heads are diminutive with 
few exceptions. Prince Albert is a little above average 
height and begins to look like a big man. The Duke 



60 

of Edinburgh is of good size, but stature is the ex- 
ception among the men so far as we were able to ob- 
serve. 

It was nearly two o'clock when the object of all de- 
sire and the cause of all the patient waiting through 
weary hours came into sight. Her surroundings were 
magnificent; the wealth and ingenuity of all the cen- 
turies of English history, her battles, her triumphs, her 
wealth, her martial splendors, her genius, her magnifi- 
cent treasures of intellect and learning, were all ex- 
pressed or symbolized in the coming pageant. The 
centuries of the glory of India were made prominent in 
a body-guard, shining in all that an Oriental mind 
conceives as splendid, for royal protection. The sight 
might engage the attention of the foreigner, but the 
eyes of England and its dependencies were on a 
motherly, thoughtful, Christian woman, on whose life 
was neither spot nor blemish. The head of the country, 
the head of the church, the embodiment of the civiliza- 
tion and glories of centuries, she was the grand person- 
ation of kingdom and empire. Her appearance was 
dignified but cheerful, she had for the first time since 
the death of the Prince-Consort taken from her person 
every sign of mourning and widowhood. It was a 
Jubilee to her people, and she would readily contribute to 
their happiness by removing every vestige of the long 
separation between them, on account of her many and 
grievous family afflictions. She is, contrary to all ad- 
verse criticisms, a very handsome woman, so far as we 
are competent to judge, and being a citizen of a country 
unsurpassed in the production of this article we are con- 
fident of rendering an accurate opinion. Her face is 
full, without being fat or flabby ; age does not yet ap- 
pear in deformity ; and a more handsome woman at the 



67 

age of sixty-nine cannot be found on either hemis- 
phere. 

The last to appear was her cortege, drawn by those 
famous horses only used on state occasions, cream- 
colored, as the English say, but light dove color as 
they appeared to us, caj)arisoned in gold and jewels, and 
bestrode by men glittering in gold. The people broke 
into the resistless shout of " God save the Queen," and 
kept on rending the heavens until she was out of hear- 
ing. It was as the noise of mighty waters, of thun- 
ders such as reminded us of the descriptions in the 
book of the Apocalypse of what shall be given. What 
occurred within the walls of that monumental Abbey, 
the centre in all English records of history, in the 
shades of centuries of treasured greatness and in 
the ashes of heroes slain in England's battles, of 
martyrs and confessors to the truth, the great and 
good in mind and morals, her poets and statesmen, her 
inventors and explorers, we did not see, but read 
of her kneeling before the Great King at whose feet 
she laid her crown and confessed her sins ; implored 
God's mercy in the name of Jesus Christ and begged 
for his strength for her duties until the day comes when 
He shall strip her of these borrowed vestments that 
she may lie down in the dust, where her humblest 
subject shall be her peer. But " Long live Victoria" 
must be the prayer of all Christian hearts. 

This Jubilee has been made a time of taking account 
of religious progress and results. Missionary societies 
engaged in work at home and abroad are having 
both anniversaries and jubilees. Many of these or- 
ganizations are as old as the Queen's reign. The 
Established Church is making the event a great occa- 
sion in its history, in reviews of work done and the 



68 

mapping out of work to do for the next half century, 
and the devising of plans and gathering means to do it. 
This may be said more or less of all Christian think- 
ers and workers. They are all preparing for new 
departures and adjusting plans and their working ma- 
chinery more to the peculiar demands of the age. All 
Christian life in this kingdom is just now on a tour of 
inspection. Explorations are on foot. Calebs and 
Joshuas are out spying the land of future conquests, 
measuring the stature of the giants, estimating the kind 
and strength of the forces to conquer. Foreign mis- 
sionary work is occupying more of the Christian 
thought and purpose than ever before. The bases of 
operations are being Avidened. More intelligent con- 
ception of the work is disseminated. Better workers 
are coming forward. Foreign Missions have cer- 
tainly opened a large field for the surplus energy of 
intelligent Christian men and women of England, 
Ireland and Scotland. Ministers' children are tak- 
ing it up conscientiously and eagerly. There has been 
but a limited field for this consecrated talent and 
learning heretofore ; the ministry is a profession more 
than full, and can satisfy any demands that will 
promise even a scanty support. But now sons and 
daughters can find congenial work in China, India, 
Egypt; some are even going to the Soudan. These 
countries are not looked upon as so far away from here 
as from us. The line of travel is crowding eastward ; 
men and women from these isles are going everywhere 
East, either as travellers or to do business. Wherever 
Christianity has gone in the person of a single mission- 
ary, or where the traders have gone ahead, even on the 
Dark Continent, they are calling in Macedonian cries, 
"Come over and help us!" Never in the history of 



69 

Missions were so many ready and anxious to go, and 
never was the whole Church of Christ so ready to send. 
The fields are not more ready for the harvests than 
are the harvesters to go into them. 

And what is more cheering, the missionaries are not 
adventurers, but men and women born to the work. 
The leaders have come forth from out the loins of the 
ministry at home, born in the manse and parsonage, 
consecrated to God in their birth, and trained to all 
the duties and accomplishments of soul-saving as the 
business of life. Many of the men have stood in the 
front rank of the universities, well equipped in all the 
departments of knowledge. Not a few have studied 
the languages of the countries to which they go before 
entering the field. Great attention is being given to the 
medical arm of the service ; medical colleges have in 
almost every class numbers of Christian young men 
preparing for this phase of the work, and for the 
Zenanas the brightest female intellects of the kingdom 
are preparing with great thoroughness for the treat- 
ment of female diseases,now shut away beyond man's 
skill or sympathy. 

It is a constant wonderment how God distributes the 
vital forces of earth when and where he pleases. In- 
tellect has felt on these isles the straitened conditions 
of greater supply than demand ; but now God has 
opened a highway for the distribution of this force ; he 
is giving a wider theatre for the disbursement of these 
values, and avenues of demand are opening in these 
dark places which will last for centuries. 

There are other departures in the plans for the future 
in this world-conquering agency. It is not expected 
that Britons will convert these people in the mass, but 
rather lead in the raising up among them of a native 



70 

ministry educated in the faith, which will do it 
with less hindrance, with more wisdom as to the 
environments, and with the power which comes from 
race influences and affinities. And this is not only 
wise as an English measure, but philosophical and 
divine in method, for it is God's ordination in the in- 
carnation, and in every form of its application, that 
man shall not only be saved by man, but every one by 
his own particular kind. 

Another departure is in the process of realization, which 
is the increased use of the English tongue. It is no longer 
a problem as to what language will dominate the world 
in the future, and wherever there is any commerce 
with heathendom men know the advantages of speak- 
ing English, and they are eager to learn. " Yes, from 
pure cupidity," says the religious sentimentalist. No 
matter ; if a man can be persuaded that his bread and 
butter and the salvation of his soul come alike from 
God, and can be had by speaking the English lan- 
guage, for God's honor let him speak it, help him to 
speak it. The Presbyterian has advocated this idea for 
years, and we are glad that it is beginning to be organ- 
ized into a policy for a faithful and honest experiment. 
English-teaching and speaking schools are meeting 
with enthusiastic reception in commercial places in 
heathendom, and when we hear them speaking the 
language in which the gospel can be presented in its 
truest conception, in words with which no ideas of idol- 
atry can be associated, we have them half won to Christ. 
It seems to us that the best way to save the heathen 
nations is to denationalize them as quickly as possible, 
and this is the policy on which politicians and states- 
men have wrought and are working ; that is, that the 
language of a conquered people must be changed before 



71 

they can be unified by the conquering government. 
This Germany is doing in Alsace and Lorraine ; and 
Austria also has done this, and all wise nations formed 
from alien peoples who aspire to nationality must do 
likewise. 

The school-mistress, especially when found in the 
Zenanas, is more than a match for heathenism. In 
slavery days, in the United States, it was considered be- 
neath the dignity of young men and women in the South 
to teach school, so that the instruction of the South was 
given up to the North. Senator Hayne, of South Caro- 
lina, is reported to have said sneeringly to the great 
Massachusetts Senator one day, as a drove of mules and 
asses were going through the streets of the capital 
at Washington, " There goes a company of your con- 
stituents." " Yes," said Mr. Webster, " they are going 
South to teach school." There was more than the over- 
whelming of a mean taunt in this reply, even a drove 
of mules and asses going out to teach mules more ignor- 
ant than themselves is a force bound to conquer in the 
end. Not making any further comparison than to 
show the principle involved, we say solemnly and re- 
verently that when the English-speaking school-masters 
and mistresses, constrained by the love of Christ, are 
once turned loose on heathenism the people will cast 
their idols to the moles and bats and will join in the tri- 
umphal chorus of redeeming love, saying, " Unto Him 
that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own 
blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God 
and his Father ; to Him be glory and dominion forever 
and ever. Amen." 



THE JUBILEE IN MISSIONS. 

O change lias occurred on this side of the ocean 
more marked than the change in regard to lay 
work. There is a growing disposition to send out godly 
laymen to the mission work both at home and abroad 
without regard to the educational requirements insisted 
on in the Presbyterian and other Churches. The last 
Irish Assembly, at Belfast, so far adopted this policy 
that they determined to send forth an eminent man, whose 
services had been tried and appreciated among them 
as a missionary worker of piety, capacity, zeal and ex- 
perience. The drift of opinion in the Assembly, as far 
as we heard, was in this direction, and this drift will 
grow stronger if the only exception they have ever made 
shall report success one year from the time of this meet- 
ing. 

Foreign missionary zeal and sacrifice do not lag 
behind in Scotland. In some localities the spirit of 
missions has risen to an enthusiasm. The subject oc- 
cupied an important place in the attention of all three of 
the Assemblies — Established, Free and United Presby- 
terian. The deputations visiting the Irish Assemblies 
all spoke, not only hopefully, but enthusiastically, of 
this arm of the service, and nowhere is this more mani- 
fest than in the Christian activities of the Established 
Churches, Scotch and English. In some respects they 

are leading the host. When the disruption in Scotland 
72 



73 

occurred it left but little to the Establishment but the 
church buildings, livings and manses, but the few that 
remained woke up and took in the situation, con- 
cluding wisely that only a more active piety and a more 
careful looking after perishing men would repair the 
desolations and save them from everlasting sterility. 
They have caught up with the vital movement of the 
Free Church, which left all of worldly prospects behind 
at the disruption. There is not in all the history of the 
Church a greater marvel of recuperative power, nor 
can it be said now, as was truly said in the past, that 
the Established Church of Scotland is effete, or that it 
is likely to become so. This we say as a matter of 
simple justice, for we are not enthusiastic for Establish- 
ments, nor do we detract aught from the work of the 
noble Free Church in what we have thus said. 

The English Establishment began to be stirred by 
two causes. The Romanizing revival called out all the 
energies of intense partisanship, or rather this mono- 
mania (Romamania?) of imitators, who always chafe to 
go further than it is expedient, worked hard on hostile 
sensibilities around them. Bigotry is the very essence 
of assumed religious superiority, Pharisaism is its vital 
breath ; it lives and breathes in ceremonials, vestments, 
wax candles and postures. It soon produces a dialect all 
its own — a high religious cant, which is bound to call at- 
tention to itself. It lives in an air of contempt for 
simple, unadorned piety, even in the bosom of the 
same church, for those in the Established Church who 
would so far fellowship dissenters as even to wish them 
well would be held to be culprits, certainly against high 
caste, if not against heaven. These men are separatists 
— separatists in the hostility generated in their own 
position, and separatists from the fact that better men 



74 

and women desire to get away from them. Their pres- 
ence is often plainly seen to be offensive, in the cars or 
at a dinner party, and even at a funeral. 

If there was a difference between the advanced Rit- 
ualist and the Roman Catholic worth a penny we 
would toss it to the Romanist side, for Rome has been 
consistent ; it is not an imitator, it is not a turncoat ; its 
followers are not obliged to be excessive in ritual to show 
that they are genuine, and that past religious affinities 
have not in the slightest degree affected them. But even 
here one of the standing paradoxes of Christianity ap- 
pears. Within this forbidding thorn -hedge there is Chris- 
tian life, true, humble and devout, a piety that soars 
far above its enclosures. Nowhere is there more self- 
denying service rendered to the poor and needy, not by 
the people we have been describing, but by Christ's 
own whom they have corraled, and who are so busy in 
their Master's work that they do not care to know who are 
doing police duty. It is strange, but true, that while 
these High-church dignitaries, Ritualists and semi- 
Romanists exhibit not the best but worst phases of Ro- 
man Catholicism, rendering them so hard and un- 
charitable to others who claim to be the followers of 
Christ, and whose works show their sincerity, yet these 
same people work with an astonishing zeal and conse- 
cration for the destitute and depraved. No more pros- 
perous and useful missions and agencies of every kind 
can be found in the kingdom than theirs; open air 
meetings, searchings in the slums, fishing out the lost 
from the very cesspools of degradation, and making 
the most ample provision for their' wants, and adding 
also helps adequate to their eternal betterment. This 
party in the Established Church is not behind any 
other, and we would not intimate that their motives 



75 

and sacrifices are not sincere. They are, in our judg- 
ment, excessively narrow and bigoted, offensive to 
many Christians, but it is a small matter that they 
should despise other Christians if they will only do 
their duty to the world. It is better if they have 
Christ in symbolism than no Christ, better that their 
work should be narrow and one-sided than that they 
should not work at ail. Their teachings, hoAvever, 
are often more churchly than Christly; Christ is too 
often made a prisoner in the Church. 

But all this has called another class into exist- 
ence, for action and reaction are equal. The Broad- 
church is the reaction from the High-Church. Rit- 
ualism and rationalism run always on parallel lines, 
and the one pre-supposes the other. Broad-church- 
ism is about equal in strength to High-Church- 
ism. It is less offensive in its spirit but more danger- 
ous in its results, as it is easier to lower the moral tone 
of society by rationalistic treatment of God's Word 
than to raise it. The brightest intellects and the best 
educated in, at least, modern attainments, are on the 
Broad side of the English Church, but they have 
neither the intensity of religious conviction, nor the 
self-sacrificing spirit, of the Ritualists. The anomaly 
lies in the fact that both live in the same ecclesiastical 
connection, without positiveness enough on either side to 
attempt to crowd the other out. We know that the 
reply is made that there is liberty enough not to an- 
tagonize each other on non-essentials, but if the issues 
between them are enough to separate into two such 
classes, it is absurd and insincere to call them non- 
essentials. 

But there is another great division who do not get 
along so well with the two we have described as the 



76 

other two do with each other. These people protest 
in their hearts, in their doctrines and lives against 
both broadness and narrowness alike. They have con- 
fidence in all that sincerely name Christ's name, they 
believe such are the Lord's own, and are in sympathy 
and fellowship with them. They hate the restraints of 
legalism and ceremonialism, on the one side, and they 
hate laxness on the other. They are evangelical in the 
highest sense ; they work more out of personal love to 
Christ than for any churchly expression of it. They 
are members of the Church of England, and always 
will be, but their fellowships are outside of it, because it 
does not give them the form of life and activity their 
souls crave. They are vitalized Episcopalians. They 
declare their utter unbelief in sacramental grace and 
baptismal regeneration, &c. Such doctrines are not in 
their Bibles, and not, therefore, in the creed of their 
daily lives. These Christians go to the Lord's Supper 
to receive its benefits through memory, obedience and 
faith. They hear the word pieached in their church, 
accepting what is according to the plain teaching of 
God's Word, and what accords with the experiences of 
Christian life. They love the Word of God and read 
it intelligently and devoutly, following it closely, and 
they gain grace to make their lives conform to Christ's 
command and example. 

The kingdom is alive with such Christians, and their 
presence promises to make all good permanent. In all 
the church of God on earth there are no better people, or 
people working harder to promote God's glory in holy 
living or in efforts to save souls. This part of the Church 
will not probably number more than one-third of the 
members of the Established Church, but as Gideon's 
mode of eliminating his army of three hundred from 



77 

about thirty-two thousand shows that numerical strength 
is not always real strength, this one-third may have more 
than half of the real strength of the Establishment. 
And that they are doing one-half of the work which 
is now evangelizing England, and bringing it back to its 
loyalty to Christ, few who know the relative power of 
the forces will doubt. The Christlike zeal of this evan- 
gelical part of the Established Church is infused into 
both the High-church and the Nonconformists, for they 
work with the Nonconformists, and keep up in this 
way a vital connection between them and the Estab- 
lished Church, and both encourage the godly element 
within the High and Ritual, and act as a counter- 
irritant for good on the " exclusives," as we may term 
them. By these we mean those who know of no 
other way of serving God except by prelatical ma- 
chinery and much millinery. The Evangelicals are 
in every movement intended to save and help men, 
and work with all likeminded in this direction. They 
are Episcopalians, and love their Church, as they ought, 
but are not forever using it as an instrument of mean 
torture to those who find their church affinities in other 
organizations. There are those in the Establishment, 
we fear, who by their exclusiveness, church pride and 
superciliousness, have never gotten beyond the notion, 
even in the nineteenth century, that the Church, as 
they are pleased to call it, is an ordained pillory 
maintained through the grace of an unbroken succession. 
And this will go far to explain what many are 
pleased to call " the curse of Voluntaryism," or the tre- 
mendous movement toward unchurchliness in London. 
It would be next to impossible to estimate the evan- 
gelical work carried on in London through organiza- 
tions not connected with any Church, but whose forces 



78 

come out of all the Churches. In this the Evangelical 
part of the Established Church can join without 
church hamperings. If they wish they can pray ex- 
temporaneously ; if they wish they can attend the cele- 
bration of the Lord's Supper in Nonconformist sim- 
plicity. They can ask brethren of this body to preach 
and talk in these independent chapels, at the head of 
which are Evangelical Episcopalians. It is love of the 
liberty with which Christ makes his people free that 
builds and encourages these independent movements, 
and organizations of all Christians, Episcopalians, 
Methodists, Baptists, Independents, Presbyterians, Ply- 
mouth Brethren, and whoever else love the cause and 
are ready to give themselves and their labors to it. 

We have gone into the subject of these divisions in 
the Established Church to explain some things not un- 
derstood in our country. We do not mean to convey 
the idea that, with our limited opportunities, we have 
to any considerable extent comprehended all these 
strange movements, but we think we have at least 
given clues which will lead in the right directions. 
Notwithstanding all the divisions and apparent hin- 
drances, the Established Church, in its several phases, 
is a tremendous power for good. It is shallowness and 
untruthfulness even to imagine that it is effete, or losing 
its hold upon the masses. Never in its history has it 
more fully comprehended the needs of the perishing 
millions, or more effectively set itself to meet them. 
One can only look in amazement at the work that is 
being done in every form which loving ingenuity can 
suggest. The Church of England reminds us of a fine 
forest over which the flames have swept, and while on 
the expanse stands dead timber, limbless and lifeless, 
yet there is a bewildering undergrowth full of sap, 



covered with a foliage proclaiming the fullest measure 
of life, and as the tallest trees grow in clumps, so the 
young and ardent life of this Church of to-day is cov- 
ering up the defects of the tall, but dead trees of the 
past, and soon will crowd them out of their places in 
the onward progress of renewed life. 



DR. BERNARDO'S MISSION SCHOOL. 

"E have taken the pains to go into some of the 
Home Mission fields that they might be ex- 
amined in practical detail. The work of Dr. Bernardo 
is the most remarkable in its beginnings and progress, 
and peculiar in the class of miseries it has laid hold 
upon. Dr. Bernardo, who was a young medical student 
twenty years ago, was induced by Christian workers, 
as many medical students here do still, to teach in the 
ragged schools. He had for three years, as far as his 
studies would permit, conducted a voluntary night 
school among rough boys and girls, the children of the 
poor laboring classes. There was distressing poverty 
at times here — ragged, hungry and cruelly treated 
children. He thought that this was the depth of Lon- 
don poverty, but God gave him a surprising revelation 
of what he had never even dreamed about, nor would 
he have believed if he had. He was sceptical as to the 
existence of the genuine Arab class ; but one night the 
curtain between truth and unbelief was lifted. After 
his evening scholar^ had gone one cold winter's night, 
when the wind sought every aperture in house and 
clothing to install its shiverings, standing by the fire in 
the school-room, and making no sign of departure, was 
79 



80 

a miserable specimen of human kind whose limbs were 
scantily covered with filthy rags. The Doctor being 
ready to depart said, " Come, my lad, it is time to go 
home," but he did not move a limb or a muscle. Again 
the solemn command came to him to depart for his 
home. 

" Your mother will be uneasy about you, and all the 
rest of the children are gone. Come along now, I am 
going to lock up." 

" Please, sir," whined the lad, " let me stay." 
" No, I cannot, I am going to turn the lights out." 
" Please, sir, let me stop, I will do no harm." 
" I cannot. Why do you want to stop ? Your mother 
will be alarmed about you." 
" I ain't got no mother." 
" Where is your father ?" 
" I ain't got any." 

"Well, where are your friends, and where do you 
live?" 

" I ain't got no friends, and don't live nowhere." 
The boy impressed the young physician that he was 
telling the truth. He called him near, and he came 
slowly, lifting each foot as though it weighed fifty 
pounds, but at last he stood before his inquisitor, either 
a mendacious little scamp or the saddest child ever 
seen. He closely scrutinized him to see which of the 
suppositions was true. He was but little more than a 
child, and to this hour, said the Doctor, " though nine- 
teen years have rolled away, the face and figure of that 
boy stand out clear before my mental vision." From a 
leaflet we gather further description in the Doctor's own 
words : 

The small, spare, stunted frame, clad in miserable 
ra g S — loathsome from their dirt — without either shirt, 



81 

shoes, or stockings, told me at a glance that here was a 
phase of poverty far beneath any thing with which the 
noisy, wayward childien of my ragged school had 
familiarized me. 

He said, in answer to my inquiry, that he was only 
ten years of age, though his face was not that of a child. 
It had a careworn, old-mannish look, which was only 
relieved by the bright, keen glances of his small, sharp 
eyes. This sadly over-wise face of his, together with 
the sound of his querulous, high-pitched tones, as he 
responded glibly to my questions, conveyed to my mind 
— I knew not why — an acute sense of pain. 

Of course, I cross-examined him searchingly, but I 
am bound to say that, although I felt utterly puzzled 
and mystified by his statements, there was a ring of 
truth and reality in his voice, and an unconscious air 
of sincerity about him which convinced me, ere I had 
half done my inquiries, that I was on the threshold of a 
revelation. 

" Do you mean to say, my boy," I at length asked, 
" that you really have no home at all, and that you 
have no father or mother or friends ?" 

" That's the whole truth on't, sir. I ain't tellin' you 
no lies." 

" Where did you sleep last night ?" I added. 

" Down in Whitechapel, along o' the 'aymarket, in 
one o' them carts filled with 'ay. There I met a chap 
as I know'd, an' he tell'd me to come up 'ere to the 
school to get warm; an' he sed p'raps you'd let me 
lie nigh the fire all night." 

As I looked at him my heart sank within me, and 
then too for the first time I thought, is it possible that 
in this great city there are others also homeless as 
young as he and as poorly prepared against the chill 



P2 

blasts of winter ? May there not be many such in this 
great London of ours, so full of wealth, of open Bibles 
and gospel preaching? I turned to the lad as he stood 
awaiting my answer and asked : 

"Are there other poor boys like you in London?" 

"With a grim smile of wonderment at my ignorance 
he replied : 

"O! yes, sir! lots, 'eaps o' 'em, more'n I could 
count." 

I could not believe it, with all the boasted efforts of 
both church and philanthropy, and resolved to prove 
his ready statement, and said, " If I will give you as 
much hot coffee as you can drink and a place to sleep, 
will you take me to where some of these poor boys are, 
and show me their hiding-places?" He said "yes" 
with a will, as the thought of as much coffee as he could 
drink and a warm place to sleep gave emphasis. 

He followed me to my quarters, giving me his hand, 
and his little bare feet pattered through the freezing 
slush. He was sat down by a warm fire and his warm 
food put before him, which he ate with such voracity 
that I feared he would suffer as much from over-feed- 
ing as from hunger. But the coffee put new life in him. 
As my experience since has taught that food and 
warmth and a sense of security have loosened many a 
slow tongue, so it was with Jim, for he told me his name, 
Jim Jarvis, and opened up his history in the fulness of 
his grateful heart. He was a gaunt little vagabond, 
and his sharp witticisms more than once disturbed my 
gravity, but there was an undertone of miserable recol- 
lections which frequently drew tears to my eyes as he 
told me about his trials. 

He ran on in his own way to tell me, " I never 
knowed my father, sir. Mother was always sick, an' 



83 

when I wor a little kid' ' (he did not look a very big 
one now) "she went to the 'firmary, an' they put me 
into the school. I wor all right while I wor there, but 
soon arter, mother died, an' then I runned away from 
the 'ouse!" 

"How long ago was that?" 

" Dunno 'zactly, sir ; but it's more'n five years ago, 
I reckon." 

" And what did you do then ?' ' 

" I got along o' a lot of boys, sir, down near Wap- 
ping way; an' there wor an ole lady lived there as 
wunst knowed mother, an' she let me lie in a shed at 
the back ; an' while I wor there I got on werry well. 
She wor werry kind, an' gev' me nice bits o' broken 
wittals. Arter this I did odd jobs with a lighterman, 
to help him aboard a barge. He treated me werry bad 
— knocked me about frightful. He used to thrash me 
for nothin', an' I didn't sometimes have any thing to 
eat; an' sometimes he'd go away for days, an' leave 
me alone with the boat.' ' 

" Why did you not run away, then, and leave him ?' ' 
I asked. 

"So I would, sir, but Dick — that's his name, they 
called him 'Swearin' Dick' — one day arter he thrashed, 
me awful, swore if ever I runned away he'd catch me 
an' take my life ; an' he'd got a dog aboard as he made 
smell me, an' he telled me, if I tried to leave the barge 
the dog 'ud be arter me; an', sir, he were such a big, 
fierce un. Sometimes, when Dick were drunk, he'd 
put the dog on me, ' out of fun,' as he called it ; an' 
look 'ere, sir, that's what he did wunst." 

And the poor little fellow pulled aside some of his 
rags, and showed me the scarred marks, as of teeth, 
right down his leg. 



84 

"Well, sir, I stopped a long while with Dick. I 
durmo how long itwor; I'd have runned away often, 
but I wor afeared, till one day a man came aboard, 
and said as how Dick was gone — 'listed for a soldier 
when he wor drunk. So I sa} r s to him, ' Mister,' says 
I, 'will yer 'old that dog a minit?' So he goes down 
the 'atchway with him, an' I shuts down the 'atch 
tight on 'em both; an' I cries, "Ooray!' an' off I 
jumps ashore, an' runs for my werry life, an' never 
stops till I gets up near the Meat Market ; an' all that 
day I wor afeared old Dick's dog 'ud be arter me." 

" 0, sir," continued the boy, " the perlice were the 
hardest on me ; there wor no gittin' no rest from 'em. 
They always kept a niovin' me on. Sometimes, when 
I'd a good stroke of luck, I got a three-penny loaf; 
but it wor awful in the lodging-houses o' summer 
nights with the bitin' and scratchin'. I could get no 
sleep, so I mostly slept out on the wharf or anywheres. 
When the perlice catch me sometimes they would let 
me off with a kick or a knock on the side of the 'ead." 

I gave up questioning him, and drawing his chair 
and my own close to the bright fire, I told him slowly, 
and in the simplest language I could command, the 
wonderful story of the Babe born in Bethlehem. After 
describing the goodness, compassion and love which 
the Lord Jesus had shown for everybody, I went on to 
speak of his trial before Pilate, his cruel scourging, 
and his crown of thorns. The little fellow, who had 
been listening all the while with the most intense in- 
terest, occasionally asked questions which showed his 
shrewd application of these events to the only life he 
knew. He was much moved to sympathy, and when 
I proceeded to tell him the whole of the sad story of 
our Lord's crucifixion, and described to him the use 



85 

of the nails, and of the spear, and of the gall given to 
drink, little Jim fairly broke down, and said, amid his 
tears, " 0, sir, that wor wuss nor Swearin' Dick sarved 
me!" 

Then I knelt down and asked the Lord to bless this 
little waif of the streets. When I arose to prepare for 
my midnight journey, the poor child's eyes were suf- 
fused with tears, and I could not but hope and believe 
that this young heart, so long neglected, was being 
opened to the gentle voice of the Good Shepherd. It 
was after midnight when we started to fulfil his promise 
. to show me where there were " lots of 'em" of his kind. 
He led me into Houndsditch. Here we ascended a 
step or two into a kind of narrow court, through which 
we passed. And as my doubts were coming uppermost 
as to his sincerity, he said, "We will come on 'em 
soon ; they dursent stay about here on account of the 
perlice." 

With bated breath he said, " You'll soon see lots o' 
'em if we don't wake 'em up." 

A high dead wall stood before us. I said, " Where 
are the boys, Jim ?" 

" Up there, sir," pointing with his finger to the iron 
roof of the shed of which the wall before us was the 
boundary. There seemed no way up ; but Jim made 
light work of it by finding holes in the wall into which 
he planted his toes until he was up, and I followed. 
We stood on the stone coping, and there, exposed upon 
the dome-shaped roof, lay eleven boys with their heads 
upon the higher part and their feet somewhat in the 
gutter, but in a great variety of positions — some coiled 
up as dogs before a fire, some huddled two or three to- 
gether, and others more apart, without covericg of 
any kind upon them, though it was freezing cold. The 



rags that most of them wore were mere apologies for 
clothing. One big fellow appeared to be about eigh- 
teen years old ; the ages of the others ranged from nine 
to fourteen. 

Just then the moon shone clearly out. I have 
already said it was a bitterly cold, dry night, and as 
the pale light of the moon fell upon the upturned faces 
of those poor boys, and as I, standing there, realized 
for one awful moment the terrible fact that they were 
all absolutely homeless and destitute, and were perhaps 
but samples of numbers of others, it seemed as though 
the hand of God himself had suddenly pulled aside 
the curtain which concealed from my view the untold 
miseries of forlorn child-life upon the streets of London. 
Jim looked at the whole thing from a very matter-of- 
fact point of view. 

" Shall I wake 'em, sir ?" he asked. 

Overcome with the horror of my own thoughts, and 
with my heart beating with compassion for these un- 
happy lads whom I knew not how to assist, all I could 
say in response was, " Hush ; don't let us attempt to 
disturb them." 

I felt at that moment, standing there alone in the still 
silence of the night, with sleeping London all around 
me, so powerless to help these poor fellows that I did 
not dare to interrupt their slumbers. All I could do 
was to turn sadly away, wiser, but more miserable be- 
cause of my utter helplessness in this awful extremity. 

After we had descended, Jim, in his matter-of-fact 
way, said: 

" Shall we go to another lay, sir ? There are lots 
more." 

I had seen enough, and wished no further revela- 
tions at that hour of the night. My future career was 



87 

determined, though I had to wait and toil long years 
before ray purpose was to any large extent realized. I 
was a comparative stranger in London myself, but our 
Heavenly Father, who feeds the hungry ravens, heard 
the prayer of my heart, and gradually opened the way 
to accomplish the work I had set before me. 



HOME MISSIONARY WORK IN LONDON. 

rTlHE inspiration to the life-work of Dr. Bernardo, 
J_ when a young medical student, is given in the 
last chapter. We feel sure that our readers will wish to 
know what was the outcome of that night's search 
among the homeless. He never turned from that 
night's purpose, formed in silence as he surveyed the 
uncovered forms of those eleven boys in that freezing 
November's night. He began in a very small way. 
A little house in a mean street was first secured, in 
which he placed twenty-five homeless waifs. The old 
tumble-down house needed repairs in every part, which 
the young Doctor and his boys did, and many a happy 
hour was spent in whitewashing the walls and ceilings, 
and scrubbing the floors and making other repairs 
necessary to make it even tenantable for street Arabs. 
Then he went fishing for men, to which the Lord had 
called his disciples and promised to give them success. 
He spent two whole nights upon the streets, and cast 
the net on the right side of the ship and brought to the 
shore twenty-five homeless lads, all willing and eager 
to accept such help as could be given them. It would 
be hard to imagine a happier scene than that first 
evening in the old ramshackled house, when kneeling 



down before they retired to rest, the first family of 
twenty-five, when the Doctor was not more than twenty 
years old. He and the poor homeless boys were alike 
dependent on God alone. Strength was to be in united 
supplication to Him who had said to all, " Ask and ye 
shall receive," and the boys could be heard following 
in confessing with him their sins and beseeching the 
continued care of Him who feeds the sparrows. 

God heard and blessed from that hour ; every day 
some token in some unlooked-for form of His grace sur- 
prised and comforted them. Soon the old tumble- 
down house was improved until it developed into a 
large and capacious building, large enough for three 
hundred and fifty boys. Other branches followed. 
The Village Home for Girls, founded in 1873, now shel- 
ters over six hundred little girls rescued from like 
dangers and destitutions, utterly homeless, wandering 
half naked the nights through, sleeping anywhere they 
could hide or keep from freezing. In all eight thou- 
sand poor boys and girls, many of them orphans, since 
that first night of adventure with Jim have been 
snatched from hunger and that more awful destroyer 
that feeds on virtue as a wolf on lambs, and have been 
taught to master handicrafts and brought under the 
sway of Christian love. 
r These homes are wonderful institutions, an unanswer- 
able argument to the divine nature of Christianity, ar- 
guments against infidelity worth more than tomes of 
what passes as evidences and apologetics. The ad- 
vantage of this work is that there are no explanations 
needed. There are, at present, thirty-three distinctly 
separate institutions in various parts of the kingdom 
and in the colonies, under the name of " Doctor Ber- 
nardo's Homes ;" over ten thousand boys and girls have 



89 

already, by them, been removed from the vagabond life 
of the streets ; from the perils of orphanhood, or taken out 
of immoral environments. These have all been educated, 
taught trades or fitted for domestic service. Many of 
them have been added as devout disciples to the church 
of Christ. We made a tour of inspection through two 
of these homes ; in one were school-rooms where the 
boys were being taught in the elementary branches 
and were making as good progress as any similar num- 
ber of well-to-do children in our own country. In 
other rooms the boys were tailoring, making and mend- 
ing their own clothes, and in others making and mend- 
ing their own boots and shoes ; others were doing car- 
penter work ; others in the laundry ; others baking and 
cooking ; and every thing else that could fit them for 
life's struggles and triumphs. 

The place is spotlessly clean, and baths and swim- 
ming-poo] s are provided, where the boys are taught to 
swim. They are dressed in sailor costume, which gives 
splendid effect without being expensive. They have to 
work from five o'clock in the morning to six at night 
when they first come in order to test their willingness. 
To promote discipline they are all worked very hard, 
but are fed well and have appetites for their food, with 
which they are liberally provided. They have two 
hours a day for recreation in the yard of the Home, and 
half the day on Saturday, in which they are taken to 
outside places of interest. One hundred and fifty of 
these great strapping fellows, picked up off the streets 
and stowaways found on ships, speaking fourteen dif- 
ferent languages, were in the service at Mildmay Mis- 
sion in their blue trousers, white shirts and palm-leaf 
hats. In the breast-pocket of their sailor shirts was a 
Bible and copy of Sankey's hymns. They are under 



90 

military discipline and move like regulars, confirming 
what has been to us a long impression, that military 
discipline is essential in any well-regulated school. 
The habit of implicit obedience to a superior will is 
one of the best possible attainments for men. These 
once outcast boys, thrown clear away from the bosom 
of society, almost from humanity, ranged in age from 
sixteen to twenty, and cannot stay long in the institu- 
tion, but long enough for many of them to be converted 
by faith in the Lord Jesus and to go forth a blessing 
to society. 

We have never seen so many young men together 
without some one being trifling, and when they sang it 
brought the great congregation to tears, and well they 
might weep at the thought of their neglects and what 
possibilities there are in Christ Jesus for the veriest 
dregs of society. They stood before men and women, 
who had no temptations from want, to remind them 
of the fact that millions of such are lost because the 
Church has not yet come to believe that " it is a faith- 
ful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners." It re- 
minded one of the character of the congregation that 
must have stood around the Apostle Peter on the day of 
Pentecost — one hundred and fifty speaking fourteen dif- 
ferent languages, black, white, copper-colored, Euro- 
pean, Asiatic and American. Two black boys who 
had come as stowaways from their country and were 
reduced to starvation, would have starved but for this 
wonderful English Christian charity. 

It will interest our readers to know what Dr. Ber- 
nardo can find for them to do. We have named 
several trades, but these are taught to the younger 
boys. In the temporary home for the older ones some 



91 

saw kindling wood from ship-loads of lumber waste 
that comes from Norway. It is cut and arranged into 
all kinds of kindling, and in shape for matches. Many 
make temperance drinks, which are a great institution 
on this side of the ocean in aid of practical temperance. 
Ginger ale, ginger lemonade, soda water, &c, are manu- 
factured by these waifs by the thousand barrels and 
sold all over the kingdom. But what is of most interest 
is their emigration to Canada. 

Doctor Bernardo cannot supply the demand for the 
services of boys and girls in England, because he will 
not send out any that cannot be relied upon as able to 
do what they profess. Nobody is rejected who applies 
night or day, but each applicant is put on trial for 
three qualities — honesty, truthfulness and moral cleanli- 
ness, every thing else is endured and usually cured. 
Of course, such men and women, with this training in 
skill and morals, would be in demand. But the Doctor, 
preferring to remove them from temptation and from the 
humiliating remembrances of their past, sends them to 
Canada to Christian and philanthropic people, who 
distribute them as far as possible in Christian homes. 
Many have gone to Manitoba and other north-western 
settlements. Ten thousand and five hundred have been 
so distributed, many of whom are heads of Christian 
families of their own, citizens of no mean standing, 
members of the churches, Sabbath-school teachers, and 
some preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
The Doctor has gone several times to see them 
located, and is going within the next fortnight with 
one hundred and fifty choice ones, and soon will follow 
as many more. No one who has ever been in this in- 
stitution is lost sight of; correspondence goes on regu- 
larly with the institution, and if a baby is born to any 



92 

of the former inmates, the fact is reported and prayers 
offered up for its future. There are many incidents con- 
nected with these lives which cannot be surpassed in 
true pathos of duty faithfully done under trying cir- 
cumstances. 

One of the boys was known by the name of Jack. 
He was a genuine Arab, who had " picked up" a living 
after the fashion of the traditional " yaller dog" — kicked 
and cuffed, homeless and friendless, he had been edu- 
cated into grim stoicism. Under any grievance his re- 
sponse was a snarl. The sunshine had all gone out 
of him when he entered the Home. Poor Jack had 
been prematurely frost-bitten. Smiles and kind words 
embarrassed him ; he did not know at first what they 
meant. He was gradually thawed out on the out- 
side of his life, but, like a frozen apple set before 
the fire, while the heat might blister the outside, 
his heart was frozen. It took Divine power to 
thaw his, but Jack obtained it through prayers and 
tears. 

His hard-hearted companions taunted him with 
their coarse wit, but Jack made no reply, except to 
say, " Fellows, I am not what I was. I will be a bet- 
ter boy with God's help, and by-and-by you will say that 
God has helped me." He had learned to read, and 
his Bible was his constant companion. In the long 
room of more than a hundred iron cots Jack would 
kneel down before his bed, no matter how weary, and 
pray for himself, at first in whispers, then becoming 
absorbed would pray loud enough to be heard by all 
the hundred boys. At first they came up to his cot on 
tip-toe from idle curiosity, or to make fun, but this soon 
stopped, as he, all unconscious of their presence, would 
plead with God for their salvation, calling their names ; 



93 

and before long, as soon as Jack would kneel, a great 
number of the boys would steal up and kneel around 
his cot reverentially to hear his lower-toned commence- 
ment. 

On succeeding days they would come to him to 
know what had changed him so that now he was so 
happy, and so Jack commenced to preach without 
knowing that he was a preacher, until, to the surprise 
of all the officials of the institution, a constant revival 
of religion was going on, and the boys were crying to 
God for mercy. They were having their prayer- 
meetings and inquiry-meetings, in which Jack was the 
central figure, expounding the Word of God and in- 
structing his fellows, to the surprise of older Christians. 
Indeed, Jack was one of the best-known in connection 
with the missionary work in all the institution. The 
boys called him "Happy Jack," and ttey, whether 
Christian or not, were always happy in his presence. 

When Jack's time expired he joined a company of 
one hundred and fifty going to Canada, and in the 
emigrant's part of the ship was busy day and night, 
and many believed the gospel as they heard it from 
his lips. The news of his preaching power reached the 
cabin, and at the request of the saloon passengers 
Happy Jack was invited to preach, which he did. All 
were thoughtful, many were impressed, and some fol- 
lowed to the steerage to hear him. One gentle- 
man who heard him in the saloon was converted, 
and sent a thank-offering of seventeen pounds to the 
Home. When Happy Jack landed in Canada he was 
sent out into the agricultural regions, where the country 
was sparsely settled, and the nearest villagers, who had 
no regular preaching, insisted on Happy Jack becom- 
ing their minister, and built him a little church, and 



94 

Jack's ministry has been blessed all through the coun- 
try, and many have turned unto the Lord. 

Dr. Bernardo's Institutions are gathered arouud a 
famous old rum establishment called " Edinburgh 
Castle." The work has a fascination for us, so that it 
will be with reluctance and fear of tiring our readers 
that we turn away from it. On this ground, redeemed 
from the pit, is a large hall holding five thousand peo- 
ple. Dr. Bernardo soon found that he would have to 
be a preacher as well as a doctor, the double need and 
duty of caring for both soul and body. He preaches 
in this great house filled with men and women, Chris- 
tians and sinners, high and low, educated and ignor- 
ant, all gathered under one roof to hear the wonderful 
words of life. 

We preached to five thousand people after the doctor 
had expounded the Scriptures at least a half hour, the 
great audience following him with their Bibles, so that 
when they turned the leaves it sounded like the rustle 
of November winds among the dead leaves of a forest. 
The great congregation was deeply attentive in prayer, 
reading of the Word and preaching. An organ and a 
cornet led in its praises. But these were lost in the 
volume of living voice. There were three choirs. The 
young men of the Institution, which we have described, 
two iiundred perhaps, were on the great platform. Below, 
raised from the floor of the hall about five feet, was a 
choir of one to two hundred voices of young men and 
women from out of the congregation of worshippers. 
In the rear gallery were one hundred or more of the 
boys of the Institutions, and these leaders before and 
behind held up the great multitude composing the 
congregation. No one can realize the power of praise 
who has not heard it m this fashion. It gave some 



95 

idea of the praises of heaven as described in the Apoc- 
alyj)se. 

After the preaching open meetings were held all 
about the church, in the yard and on the streets, ad- 
dressed by devout and zealous young men, whose ser- 
mons are largely made up of pertinent quotations from 
the Word of God. The music is also soul-stirring. A 
lamp is raised at some convenient corner of the street 
with modern burners by which petroleum rivals gas 
both in quality and quantity of the light. This great 
hall is opened to some service, Bible study, prayer or 
preaching, every night in the week, and is filled several 
times on the Sabbath. We were not a little surprised 
to find a conceit of ours realized. We have always 
urged the bringing of children, even babies, to the 
church, believing in the force of gracious habits all 
through life,, and have declared, often to the merri- 
ment of good people over the idea, that there ought 
to be a nursery in connection with every church 
building for the accommodation of the little ones. Our 
readers may judge of our surprise when Dr. Bernardo 
announced, " If there are mothers present with fretful 
children they need not be disturbed in their hearing of 
the gospel, for there is a nursery adjacent where the 
babes will be well taken care of during the service." 

We have been one-sided in our attentions to the re- 
cipients of this Home. There is a children's hospital 
and home, where poor little cripples are supported in 
braces, splints and all conceivable adaptations to mal- 
formations, to injuries and weaknesses. It is too great 
a strain on the feelings to stay long in the midst of 
crippled, suffering babyhood, but science and Christian 
love have by their sympathetic ingenuities done much 
for the relief of these most unfortunate. Many of these 



9G 

children are cured and are as agile as if nothing pain- 
ful had happened unto them. 

The girls, gathered from the streets and out of homes 
of cruelties and all kinds of abandonment, have made 
as good a record as the boys ; we do not mean to con- 
vey the impression that all of either sex have been 
saved, but we believe the worst have been made better 
and many saved. There are unfathomable mysteries 
in human nature. There was a young girl inmate, 
secured by great trouble, whose father was a profes- 
sional thief and had served about seven terms in prison; 
the mother was also a thief, and had also served out 
several penalties of the law for theft. Strangest of all 
their daughter, ten or eleven years old, would not steal. 
No temptation in this direction had the slightest effect 
on her, nor would she speak an untruth. When she 
was sought for by the Home her brutal father had 
flogged her to make her steal, and she would not, and 
he finally kicked her iuto the street. When Dr. Ber- 
nardo asked him for her to enter his Home, he said, 
"Yes, I do not care what you do with her, she is no 
good to me." She became one of the loveliest of the 
many saved. 

Another dear little girl called Katie, picked up out 
of the slums, became a great favorite. She was gentle, 
trustful and loving in her life and behavior, a little 
Christian. She was taken to Canada, and when she 
parted from those who had cared for her in the Home 
it nearly broke all their hearts. She was taken by a 
great big Englishman in Canada, six feet, four inches 
high, his wife was six feet also, and they had three 
boys, young men, tall as their father, but no daughter. 
When Katie reached the home she expected a kiss 
from the big woman who Avas to become her mother, 



97 

but the big woman was not demonstrative in that way, 
and Katie had to stifle her disappointment. 

When they sat down to dinner the big man said to 
Katie, " Lay to, help yourself; make yourself at home," 
and the big woman commenced pouring out the coffee. 
But little Katie had not been taught in that way, so she 
put her little hands over her face and said her grace. 
The big man laid down his knife and fork, the boys 
looked confounded at each other, and the big woman 
stopped while the orphan child thanked God for his 
mercies in that far-off land. When she lifted her 
hands from her face the big farmer said, " Wife, we 
have never had a blessing said at our table before, and 
it seems that God has sent this poor child all the way 
from England to do what we have not done for our- 
selves." Then he turned to her and said, " My little 
darling, won't you say your grace aloud, and we will 
all say it after you?" So she did, and has ever since; 
the farmer and his wife and sons have become followers 
of her Saviour. 

What blessings professed Christian men and women 
lose who prefer to install curs in their homes, and care 
for them in a way that would provide for some orphan 
homeless child who might become an angel to bring 
salvation to their households, and comfort in old age, 
and the sweet consciousness besides that in having done 
it unto the least of Christ's brethren they have done it 
unto Him. Let the dogs go out and the orphan chil- 
dren come in. 

This letter would be unsatisfactory if we had no 
word about the sources of support to this Institution. 
They are various. Tender hearts, who have felt the 
bitterness of neglect and orphanage, who have risen to 
comfortable circumstances, respond. The patriot says, 



98 

" We must take care of the lower classes or they will 
take care of us," and out of philanthropy and selfish- 
ness he may respond. In one of the rooms are all 
conceivable kinds of things sent to be disposed of for 
the benefit of these Homes — rings, bracelets, jewels 
hundreds of years old, every kind of value, sent from the 
costly houses of wealth, to the trinket, the last remnant 
of the sympathetic poor. Very touching is even a 
partial survey of the many offerings made to this 
blessed work. But the overwhelming preponderance 
comes out of the consecrated heart of the Christian 
Church, under all its names and forms. A single in- 
stance will illustrate the surprises of this giving in 
amount to support eighty-two establishments in the one 
system. A lady sent up a message to Dr. Bernardo 
that she wished to see him. He was very busy at the 
time and begged to be excused at that hour, and asked 
her to call again. But it was necessary for him to pass 
through the room in which she was sitting, and as he 
passed he bowed to her, and she said, " It seems to be 
very difficult to get access to you." He replied that 
he was very busy. She said she only wished to make 
a little offering to his work, and fumbling in her bag 
she put in his hand a crumpled note of one thousand 
pounds — five thousand dollars. He could not believe 
his eyes, for she was a plain, unpretending woman. 
But she was not done. He began to apologize for his 
delay in responding to her call. She said it made no 
difference. She had been through and knew all about 
it, and while saying this put another one thousand 
pound note into his hand, and after that still another 
one thousand pound note — fifteen thousand dollars in 
all. He was dazed, and asked her name. She said it 
made no difference. He offered a receipt, and told her 



99 

the rules of the Institution required him to account for 
it, and he could not without her name. But she was 
silent, and left as she came — a stranger — and he has 
never known who gave it. 



PLEASURE GROUNDS AND BATTLE FLELDS. 

THE great Hyde Park of London belongs specially to 
the commoners, the people who will not suffer it to 
be closed against free speech, or even the slightest in- 
fringement of vocal liberties. In it all London may 
be seen, high and low, rich and poor, tradesmen and 
lordsmen, childhood and old age, and all life between 
these extremes. It is not beautiful in any sense; 
nature made it plain and art has not changed it much. 
It does not have the beauty of Central Park of New 
York because it has not the pleasing variety in rugged 
surface. And there is more and varied beauty in 
Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, more acres of realities 
and possibilities, than would make a half dozen of it. 
And yet, in its way, it is the greatest in the world. 

It is the place where the London political mind ex- 
presses itself more fully at present. The moral and 
immoral forces are here, active and loud-spoken, among 
middle and lower classes. It is the battle field of the 
giants. The Sabbath is the great day for every 
conceivable contest of opinion. We went hither to 
witness the open air services, to hear this field-preaching, 
and estimate as far as possible its moral value, and to 
see if it could be adapted to our cities and their moral 
Sunday pests — the parks. The Englishman in his 
mission work for the betterment of his fellow-man has 



100 

many advantages which we do not have. The govern- 
ment proceeds on the idea of the Christian religion 
being a part of itself, and the people recognize it. 
Only a few of the more desperate dare to dispute it, 
perhaps only this class desire to do it, and society came 
into possession of this governmental ideal, whether it 
wished it or not, as an English entail. There are no 
intoxicating beverages sold in Hyde Park on the Sab- 
bath ; during certain hours it is forbidden all over the 
city; in this London is worthy of our imitation. It 
is a triumph worthy of a nation to have the doors of 
hell shut five hours once a week ; it is a comfort to 
think that the lost victims of the still-worm are even 
to this extent protected from their tempters. 

There was no rowdyism, no hoisterousness on the 
part of boys. No base-ball and its peculiar yells. No 
disturbances of drunken men. The people arranged 
themselves very much according to their several condi- 
tions in life ; read, talked, meditated, or if a weary man 
wished to sleep he sprawled himself on the grass. Chil- 
dren romped, dogs ran, but amidst the almost endless 
movements of men and animals there was order and 
quiet sufficient, so that whether the people desired to 
recreate or worship there was no apparent disturbance 
of individual rights. All over the Park are clumps of 
trees suited for assemblages of from one hundred to five 
hundred, and in some places as many as ten thousand 
could be fairly sheltered by shade. Following an 
avenue from the gate we came to the first group of 
standing worshippers. They had a portable organ and 
were singing gospel hymns, after this a young man read 
the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles to a 
crowd of two hundred and fifty. He made practical 
comments as he read, and when he was through they 



101 

sang again, and another young man made an address 
of five minutes, then they moved on. This peregrina- 
ting service seemed to be managed by the Young Men's 
Christian Association, which is a power in London, 
where they understand that it means hard work, get- 
ting down into the hells and ditches of London degra- 
dation. 

It is not understood in London that the Young Men's 
Christian Association is a dormitory, nor a place 
mainly for hearing and reading good things, but a head- 
quarters of hard, disagreeable work in filthy and ne- 
glected places. Their houses are where wretchedness 
reigns, so that the people have them in their midst. A 
young man speaking of the palaces which adorn so 
many cities, instead of a half dozen comfortable places 
at the points where they can be minute men, said: 
" It is too fine, sir, the flesh can find plenty of reasons 
in itself for being lazy. It reminds me of what a cob- 
bler said of some fine fellows that made the Association 
an occasional visit from a fashionable part of the city 
just to cheer them up and give respectability, ' Them's 
the kind of angels that leave heaven after ten o'clock 
in the morning to save man, and go back to sleep there 
at night.' " 

The next crowd in the Park were being harangued 
by an Internationalist, a desperate man, known to the 
police — and knoAvn as one of the most dangerous in 
misleading laboring men. He denounced all institu- 
tions and government, all who believed in the present 
order of things. He did not give any platform, he 
only tore up what existed, he raved until he frothed at 
the mouth. The crowd around was a mixed one. 
There was every shade of belief. Those loyal to govern- 
ment and society and to the rights of property jeered 



102 

or asked provoking questions. Others listened in dis- 
gust, and a few desperate-looking men cheered. 

Within one hundred feet was another crowd of three 
hundred who were hearing a man of ability preaching 
on the duty of repentance of sin and turning unto 
God — a Christian life as the only condition which 
will satisfy the soul of man. He spoke with pathos, 
which touched the hearts of many, of the unsatisfacto- 
riness of all here below, and how easy it is to destroy 
all that ambition strives for in this life. He asked the 
sceptic how much he got out of his unbelief to com- 
fort in poverty, sickness, disappointment and death. 
He referred to a well-known man who had a promising 
son. He sent him to the University of Oxford ; he 
took honors, but took the typhoid fever too, and died. 
The speaker said : 

" You know the unbelief of his father ; you have 
heard him railing at the religion of Jesus Christ, and 
calling Christians hypocrites. When that young man 
came to die he did not ask for his father's counsel once ; 
he knew it but too well, and he knew it would not do to 
die by. His father sat by, broken-hearted, because his 
boy would not talk with him. When men are in the 
shadows of death worldly things do not interest them, 
and he could talk with his father about nothing else. 
All he would say was, ' Poor papa, I am sorry for you.' 
But with whom did he talk in his lucid moments ? His 
mother. You have all heard her husband laugh at 
her superstitition ; but the dying son would put his 
arms about her neck and say, ' Dear mother, I know 
you will pray for me that I may be forgiven and enter 
heaven, and I know I shall meet you there.' He sent 
for two of his Christian classmates, and would not have 
them leave the room ; and when he began to pass away 



103 

he bade his father good-by, and said, ' Follow mother 
and give up your infidel ways ; what good will they 
do you when you come where I am ?' and then bidding 
a tender good-by to his classmates, and sending kind 
messages to his Professors, he asked his mother to get 
behind him in the bed and support him. Putting her 
arms around him she began repeating the twenty-third 
Psalm, and he followed until, as they reached the 
verse, ' Yea, though I walk through the dark valley,' 
his head dropped back, but she finished it. You know 
all about this," said the speaker ; " it is no preacher 
story. I am a plain laboring man. You know me, and 
you know I would not tell a lie. You know the rest. 
The father, poor, demented man, would not know 
you now if you were to meet him. ISTo more that boast- 
ful, blasphemous talk. He is talking all the time to 
himself, muttering he knows not what. The doctor 
says he has softening of the brain and will be an idiot 
soon. I wish to God he had had that softening of the 
heart he used to laugh at in Christians. How much 
better it had been for him. You say religion is a 
sham. How much sham is there in that poor wife of 
his, who has to bear the sorrow of the loss of her son 
and the loss of reason, and God knows what more, 
of her husband ? God make you wise, and may none 
of you end your lives as his is ending!" Some cried 
"Amen," and others, " That's the truth," and others 
in tears were more eloquent in their silence. 

On the other side of the avenue, under another 
clump of trees, was a crowd quite as large, but boister- 
ous — sometimes cheering, sometimes hissing, and most 
of the time doing both. A disciple of Bradlaugh was 
holding forth on the ten plagues of Pharaoh, trying to 
show the "horrid character of God," as he put it. He 



104 

had a Bible, but lie knew only the portions he had 
picked out to assail. Like all his kind, he only knew 
it in scraps. He was as ignorant of his own language 
and of the history of his own country as a goat. When 
he spoke of the miracle of darkness he attempted to 
be witty, and said, "A great deal is here set off to 
darkness. What is darkness? — it's nothing." 

Some rough-looking man shouted, " Is a London fog 
nothing ? Young man, you must be from the country ; 
you can't get that off on one who was born and lived by 
London Bridge." 

The speaker replied, " Well, stranger, as you know 
so much about fogs, tell us how it was that to the 
Egyptians it was so dark, and to the children of Israel 
it was as light as noon ; did God get up an electric 
flash for their special benefit ?" 

Somebody shouted, " You had better go to a ragged 
school and learn to read your Bible before you under- 
take to show that it is false !" 

Somebody else said, "You had better go to the 
tavern ; there is where you came from. It's open by 
this time." 

But there was no closing that orifice. He told them 
that God had to put blood on the door-posts because 
he was short-sighted. He raved and foamed at the 
mouth like a wild boar, which is a common thing 
with these excited English Atheists. We cannot ac- 
count for it ; but a gentleman told us that nearly all 
his class had this mucus symptom of the rabies. 

At this time a gentlemanly appearing man came into 
the crowd, and there was a cessation. The majority 
began to shout for the speaker to get down, but his 
crowd, a mere handful, insisted that he should go on, 
and the gentleman whose presence had created the 



105 

sensation insisted that they should hear him out. Said 
he, "We want fair dealing." The Atheist moder- 
ated somewhat, but repeated himself and raved until 
the crowd became so noisy that he had to give up. 
The newcomer then took the stand amid cheers. 
He was evidently, in the eyes of the majority, a well- 
known champion, a handsome, scholarly man of about 
fifty. He took up the fog business the first thing, say- 
ing, " I have heard with great pain this young man, 
who has the capacity for better things, assailing his 
Maker." 

" No, no," said the crowd ; " he was evolved from a 
protoplasm." 

" From an ass," said some one. 

" Yes," said another, " he is all mouth and ears.' ' 

The speaker said, " Gentlemen, fair play with this 
young man ; he is misled ; he has been reading Tom 
Paine and Bob Ingersoll, and I advise him, if he will 
be an Atheist, to read men of some respectability. No 
respectable Atheist would talk as he has done to-day 
about One whom the majority of this audience worship. 
Respectable Atheists have some respect for their fellow- 
men, and they w T ould not be guilty of impoliteness and 
vulgarity. The noblest man, in my estimation, is a 
Christian." 

Then the atheistic crowd began to howl ; but the 
President of the atheistic club, desiring to be counted 
with gentlemanly Atheists, called order. Said he: 

" Mr. , who addresses you, is a gentleman, and has 

insisted on fair play, and you must not interrupt him." 

" I thank you, Mr. President, you have said what I 
intended to say when I was interrupted. I said, accord- 
ing to my idea the noblest man is a Christian and the 
next is a gentleman." 



106 

" Hear, hear," shouted the Atheists. 

" I will not detain you. If I show you that any one 
of the positions of this young man is absurd in the light 
oi revelation and reason, will you accept that as unset- 
tling his whole argument ?" 

" Yes, if you can do it by reason." 

" Well now stick to it. He said God ordered the 
blood on the door-posts to assist his sight, and he tried 
to make game of his Maker." 

" He hasn't any," shouted somebody from the crowd. 
" His ancestors were gorillas." 

" Stop, gentlemen, you do not do justice to the young 
man and you interrupt me. Have I stated your words 
correctly? Am I correct, Mr. President?" 

" Yes." 

" Well, now, hear me read from the Book." And 
so he read and said, " You see the blood was not put 
there for God, but for the Israelites, that they might 
see it and have a sense of security." 

Then some shouted and the Atheists raved at them. 
The speaker continued : 

" But once more, and then I am done. The young 
man dwelt on the darkness, and said it was a fog, and 
then he told you a fog was nothing. Mr. President, is 
not a fog an effect ?' ' 

" Certainly." 

" Well, then, is an effect nothing ?" And then there 
was another shout. 

" Be quiet, gentlemen. Ridicule is no test of truth. 
I have a word to say as to his ridicule of this Book 
about the darkness being so dense everywhere except 
in the land of Goshen. Mr. President, you seem to be 
a fair-minded man. Did you never see a fog so dense 
at the embankment that you could scarcely see your 



107 

hand before you, and taking the ' tram' you were, in 
twenty minutes, where the sun was shining in all his 
splendor ?" And there was another outburst. 

" But," he continued, " while I have answered this 
young man by facts indisputable, I tell you that I be- 
lieve this to be direct interference of Almighty God. I 
do not sneak behind science any further than to answer 
those who will hear nothing else. I take the Word of 
God." And from this he preached a sermon of four or 
five minutes, in which we never heard a better presenta- 
tion of the gospel. 

Near this was a temperance meeting, in which both 
men and women were speaking, some dwelling on its 
ills, some on the necessity of repentance toward God 
and a godly life as its only cure. Some were for higher 
license and some for prohibition outright. 

We could visit no more places, but think we have 
sampled the lot. There may have been fifty of these 
meeting places in the Sunday contests against evil. 
These disputants are all over the city, and wherever 
error lifts its head somebody has the courage to en- 
counter it. We think we would be within bounds to 
say that there are five hundred such contests in Lon- 
don on the Sabbath. This does not include the places 
of street preaching ; of these there are doubtless far more. 
Evil and good in London have clinched each other and 
are in a life-and-death contest, with the real strength 
on the side of good. Families are divided just as de- 
scribed by the Lord. As an example, the Atheist 
Bradlaugh is offset by a pious, godly brother, just as in- 
dustrious on the side of Christianity, and a thousand 
times more conscientious than his blaspheming, God- 
hating brother ; and what is of equal interest, the bad 
Bradlaugh is on the subject of religion no match for the 



108 

good Bradlaugh and avoids coming in contact with 
him on this subject. The good Bradlaugh prays for 
his brother and believes that he will yet be converted 
by the truth to the truth. He is a writer and pub- 
lisher of religious books and tracts counteracting Athe- 
ism and Infidelity. He has his distributing agents on 
the streets and in all public gatherings, one of whom 
put in our hands the following : — " Answers to Infidel 
Objections," by W. R. Bradlaugh ; " Autobiography 
and Lectures;" "Autobiography and Conversion;" 
"Why am I a Christian?" " Christianity Established 
by Jewish and Pagan Testimony ;" " The Six Days of 
Creation;" "The Bible, Is it True?" "The Sceptic 
Defeated with His own Weapons," &c. 

As to the service to religion by public debates we are 
not prepared to say. It strikes us that it would not be 
wise to open the sewers of the city because we had a 
sovereign disinfectant. Yet good may be done on the 
other hand by showing the uneducated that there are 
two sides to the question. There may be some advan- 
tage in furnishing ready answers, and to show that re- 
ligion has no fear of its foes, but withal we are not 
sufficiently clear to recommend these methods. But 
we do recommend street preachings. And as to our 
Parks, we believe that if attractive pavilions were built 
and the best talent in the churches put into them good 
could be done. But these services ought to be at 
hours not interfering with the churches or Sabbath- 
schools, for no efforts outside the Church will ever com- 
pensate for the weakening of her hold on the unsaved. 
Young men who know how to make meetings interest- 
ing might do great good in following the crowds. The 
multitudes in the parks might be a good field of opera- 
tion for the Young Men's Christian Association. 



MILDMAY MISSION. 

N the nortliern part of London is this remarkable 
Institution, another stronghold of independent 
effort, or of manifestation of undenominational Christian 
life, in which London is a wonderful exception. This 
Institution occupies the larger part of a square of ground, 
on which is a large two-story chapel, which will in the 
audience-room seat thirty-five hundred people. In the 
basement are committee rooms, Sunday-school room, a 
capacious dining room, &c. On this ground is a house 
for the superintendent, waiting rooms for both gentle- 
men and lady visitors, a hospital and building con- 
nected with the audience hall, occupied by the deacon- 
esses. There are also spacious grounds, in which outdoor 
meetings are frequently held. Once a year, in June, 
there is a three days' meeting, to which people come 
from all over the kingdom. It is a great gathering of 
great and good people of all forms of Christian faith. 
There are four and sometimes a half dozen meetings a 
day, and the strangest thing to Americans is, that these 
eager thousands pay to get in ; a single entrance fee is 
twenty-five cents, and less for the whole series. 

There are three large tents in this area for refresh- 
ments, each large enough to hold three or four hundred 
people; on them is inscribed the inevitable "first, 
second and third class." After the hours for eating 
these tents are used for prayer-meetings and short ad- 
109 



110 

dresses. There is in this yard a famous mulberry tree, 
under which special services are often held. It has 
great outspreading branches and will throw its grateful 
shade over a couple of hundred of worshippers. As 
one hears the fervent prayers and songs for the out- 
pouring of God's Spirit he cannot fail to be reminded of 
the passage in the Old Testament, " When thou shalt 
hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry 
trees," &c. This Institution came into existence 
through the discontent of the active piety of the most 
evangelical section in the Church of England, tired with 
its formalism, its coldness and inactivity. This govern- 
ment was strengthened by these same tendencies in many 
of the Nonconformist churches thirty years ago. About 
the time of the Disruption in Scotland there was a coma- 
tose state in both the Established Churches, and yet in 
both there was a large element of vital godliness, which 
longed to get beyond what was felt to be the servitude of 
life in these Churches. In the English Church there 
was no apparent schism, nor will there ever be, because 
the necessity is removed by these independent move- 
ments, where the devout who abominate mere ecclesias- 
ticism and the continued eruptions on the body of the 
Establishment of "the old ulcer of Popery" as they call 
it, especially sacramentarianism, ordination by virtue 
of unbroken succession and baptismal regeneration, &c, 
will go into work and fellowship with those likeminded 
with themselves. 

Mildmoy is the place of all others where birds of 
a feather flock together, and it is a mighty big flock and 
has the life of Christ, and will be active evermore by 
its labors, prayers and alms for the perishing. The 
leading element is Episcopal, that is, many belong to the 
Established Church by birth and confirmation. Many 



Ill 

were born again there, and while they found it a good nest, 
found it was a poor place to develop their Christian life. 
But in this multitude that come up to the yearly meeting 
are Scotch from the Established, Free and United Pres- 
byterian Churches, Irish Presbyterians, English Presby- 
terians, Plymouth Brethren, Quakers, Independents, 
Baptists, Methodists and everybody else who has any reli- 
gious belongings, who can keep their freedom and yet 
find fellowship in the worship of this Institution. There 
are all kinds here. Cranks and crotchets fit each other, 
and the great multitude of religious personalities, with 
every possible variety of evangelical religious features, 
gather around the cross and magnify the Lord together, 
and so far as we could see, had as much individual 
freedom as a fish in Lake Erie. It is a psychologi- 
cal and religious riddle which heaven only can solve ; 
an elective affinity drawing multitudes out of all 
church environment to a heart centre, where they agree 
on the fact that " God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

The Treasurer and General Manager, James Mathie- 
son, Esq., who is a wonder in his executive abilities, is 
a member of the Presbyterian Church. He is not only 
a manager, but has the piety and ability to preach, lead 
meetings, exhort, instruct, and in every sense is a bishop 
just as good in his way as any other bishop, and nobody 
is more ready to admit it than his Episcopal brethren 
who train in the Mildmay flock. He was, as we have 
been informed, a successful banker, but had given it 
up for the Lord's work, as many others do in England, 
so that on the Lord's side are many mighty and noble. 
As we turn our eyes to the list of the Board of Trustees 
we read the names of the Earl of Caven, Sir Arthur 



112 



Blackwood, K. C. B., and among those who are present 
at its meetings are such men as Lord Kadstock, who has 
given up his life to mission work in Russia, the names 
of distinguished judges and lawyers appear, and not a 
few noble women by the two births, natural and spirit- 
ual. 

The magnitude of the work can best be described in 
the fact that there is a congregation gathered within 
the chapel of thirty-five hundred to be cared for and 
instructed. The following are services through the 
several branches of the work : — " Sabbath Services for 
Deaf and Dumb," "Evangelical Services," "Bible 
Classes for "Workers, for Servants, for Girls and Boys 
and Young Ladies," " Week Night Meetings," " Mother's 
Meeting," "Night-school for Men," "Night-school for 
"Women," " Bible Reading," "Prayer-meeting," "Mis- 
sion Work Carried on Through the Deaconesses," 
" Bethnal Green Hospital, Dispensary and Medical 
Mission," " Mission House, Institute and Coffee Tavern, 
with Lodgings for Men," " Convalescent Home,' ' and 
twenty outlying missions managed by the Deaconesses. 

Our attention was called to this system of Christian 
work by Dr. Williamson, pastor of Fisherwick Place, 
Belfast, who was one of the speakers at the Mildmay 
Conference, and delivered an address which made a 
profound impression, on "The Privileges and Re- 
sponsibilities of the Servants of the King." It was 
pointed, earnest and racy, which cannot always be said 
about English speeches, which abound more in the solids, 
with but little of humor. We heard Dr. Williamson 
three times, once in Belfast in connection with the mis- 
sion movements there, and believe him to have the true 
idea of evangelical work, and whether in his pulpit, to 
cultivated people, or in the slums, he is an eloquent and 
convincing preacher. 



113 

Many foreign missionaries of this Institution return 
bringing good tidings, and cheer the hearts of those who 
sent and support them. When opportunity offers they give 
an account of their work. The general work is usually 
presented by some eminent friend of the cause in Eng- 
land, and after the report the subject is open to the 
missionaries from the field. Africa was presented in ad- 
dress by Reginald Radcliff, Esq. ; India and China by 
Leonard K. Shaw, Esq., Gilson Gregson, Hudson 
Taylor, L. L. Lloyd, of Foo Chow, Mohammedans, 
Africa and Asia by George Pearce, Esq., Major-Gen- 
eral Haig, Andrew Jukes, Esq., M.D., Dera Ghazi 
Kahn. Railway Missions by Lieutenant-General Sir R. 
Phayre, K.C.B. and others. This is only a portion of 
the programme, but it will give an idea of the nature 
and characteristics of the work. The services closed 
with the Lord's Supper, in which nearly five thousand 
persons participated. It was a wonderful memorial not 
only of our crucified and risen Lord, but of the unity 
among men, which that death has brought into the 
world. Allusion has been made to the House of the 
Deaconesses, which is an institution of great possibili- 
ties, many of which are being realized. It is first a 
home for women whose friends are gone, and as we say, 
are alone in the world. The order originated in the 
ingenuities of the Christian love of Mrs. Pennyfather, 
the wife of the Rev. William Pennyfather, to whom 
belongs the everlasting honor of having founded Mild- 
may. In 1869 he was vicar of St. Judes, Mildmay 
Park. Its original intention was that it might be a cen- 
tre of union for Christians of all evangelical denomi- 
nations and for cooperative efforts in evangelistic and 
missionary work. 

The order of female workers which now comes under 
our notice was organized according to Romans xvi. 1, 



114 

without taking any vows or staying any longer than 
they choose. They pay one pound or five dollars a 
week ; if they are not able to pay this much, and have 
capabilities that can be utilized, provision is made for 
them. But one condition is imperative, that they give 
their whole time to ministering to the poor and ignor- 
ant. These Missions comprise visiting from house to 
house, mothers' meetings, night-schools and classes of 
various kinds. The deaconesses go two by two by in- 
vitation of the clergy, though their work has general 
superintendence at the Deaconesses' House. These wo- 
men are not sent forth to this work unskilled. In the 
House there is a system of careful training — first ascertain- 
ing in what direction the pupil is best fitted in ability. 
They begin in the Probation House, and this is a test 
of their sincerity and persistence. Women who come 
in a pet because they have step-mothers, or are 
disappointed in love, or are moonstruck or merely 
sentimental, will not stay long, and tie primary prepa- 
ration will soon show what manner of spirit they are 
of. One of the most important departments of their work 
is in nursing. From this Home candidates are sent for 
training in various hospitals, both in London and pro- 
vincial towns. There is in Kewington Green a Home 
under their care for invalid ladies, terms from five to 
ten dollars a week. It is a house of rest for female in- 
valids where the nursing is rather in the form of com- 
fort-giving and recreation by diversion. There is also 
in care of these deaconesses an invalids' kitchen, to 
provide nourishment according to the highest formulas 
of scientific treatment. 

But our space will only permit the mention of a few 
more of these operations — Dorcas societies, servants' 
registry, men's night-schools, medical mission hospital, 



115 

coffee and lodging-houses, railway mission, &c. It may 
be interesting to give some of the results. The mission 
at Bethnal Green has the proud preeminence of own- 
ing its own building, and no oasis in a desert was ever 
more grateful to the famishing than this house to the 
sufferers in this dense population, and the gratitude in 
every form of ingenuity that appreciating love can 
suggest is, to the stranger, touching in the extreme. A 
few months ago a little gipsy girl was brought into the 
children's ward. At first she was very restless and un- 
happy; but one day the deaconess searched through 
her stores of cast-off clothing, and arrayed the little 
wanderer in a bright-colored frock, and shoes with 
buckles. From that moment happiness took possession 
of her, and after her discharge she* was continually 
haunting the premises, bringing thank-offerings in the 
form of terrible-looking "sweeties," wrapped in bits of 
paper. When she found that these tokens of affec- 
tion were not appreciated as warmly as might be de- 
sired, she took to bringing half-pence, and was deeply 
wounded if even a shadow of hesitation in accepting 
the gift was manifested. Poor little waif ! she was by 
no means alone in her gratitude. In many instances 
the kindness lavished on the children has a great influ- 
ence over the parents. Sometimes a mother will bring 
a refractory boy to be spoken to, saying, " He will heed 
you more than any one else." 

One touching instance is given in which parents who 
were addicted to drink were so touched by the sight of 
the hospital, and the loving interest shown to their boy, 
that from the day of the father's visit he entirely gave 
up drink, consented to let the lad emigrate under Miss 
Macpherson's care, and a few weeks after followed with 
three of his family to begin a new life in Canada, the 



116 

funds for outfit and passage having been contributed 
by the friends he had met at the hospital. 

Another man who has emigrated was an avowed in- 
fidel when he became a patient. After some time he 
observed to the nurse that whether the things he heard 
of were true or not, " she at any rate must believe 
them, or she would not do the work she did.' ' He 
was an unusually intelligent man, and when he came 
would not take a Bible in his hands, and turned his 
back on those at prayer. He now both reads the Bible 
and prays. This is only an incident, not an excep- 
tional or sensational case ; such have been avoided that 
the reader might have a fair estimate of the work of 
these godly women. Under the direction of the dea- 
conesses are dispensaries and surgical departments, and 
all these are opened with prayer and reading of the 
Bible. You will see in the surgical ward fifty, some- 
times one hundred or more, to be examined and oper- 
ated upon. They are all, with all their ills and woes, 
in a reception-room. Usually the worst are taken first. 
A poor, shivering woman has a tumor to be removed. 
But before the operation the surgeons and deaconesses 
have a prayer-meeting, and she is commended to the 
Great Physician. A young surgeon said, " "We do not 
need anaesthetics when a woman has been prayed for 
by these deaconesses, and is praying right lively for 
herself." This meeting goes on all the time, and while 
these worst cases are being attended to the sufferer can 
hear the voice of prayer for her, or the psalms or hymns 
of comfort ; and as soon as the first news of successful 
termination comes there are thanksgivings, and these 
English peoples have no shamefacedness in telling the 
nature of the disease, or of delivery from peril, right out, 
as it lies in their sense of duty or sympathy. 



117 

Who are these women ? Some of them are of the 
nobility who have money and plenty of it, but come be- 
cause tired of the hollow frivolities of the life entailed 
upon them. Some are tired of the narrow limits of a 
formal church life. Many are women of first-class cul- 
ture who have lost their friends, and while away their 
loneliness in relieving the miseries of others. Some 
are beautiful young girls whose hearts have been cap- 
tured to the humanities of Jesus Christ and Ins mode 
of helping, who said : " Come unto me all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The 
condition and abilities of the several classes are con- 
sidered, and the work assigned according to their fitness 
and environments. Three young women of station and 
culture have given themselves to free-hand drawing, 
the result being a series of exquisitely designed and 
Illuminated Texts. Anyone who wishes to adorn the 
walls of rooms, or to select really choice cards for 
Christmas, New Year, Easter, confirmation, or birth- 
days, can send to the Deaconess House, Mildmay, Lon- 
don, for a list of these illustrations. Their sale last 
year realized no less than £1,172 12s. lOd. for the 
benefit of the Bethnal Green Hospital. These exquisite 
designs are incomparable, and our people who desire 
unique designs illustrating scriptural truths, or for wed- 
ding and holiday gifts, would do well to send for these, 
for we have nothing in our country worthy of com- 
parison. 

No greater benefactors to suffering humanity live 
than trained Christian nurses. Women who can not 
only give medicine and move weary bodies, but kneel 
down and commend troubled souls to God, stand at the 
head of earth's angel ministries. The record of these 
consecrated sisters reads thus : — In addition to a great 



118 

deal of private nursing all over the kingdom, and even 
on the Continent, the Doncaster Infirmary, a medical 
station at Malta, and a medical mission and hospital at 
Jaffa, are entirely nursed by the Mildmay " sisters," as 
well as the excellent hospital in Bethnal Green and the 
Cottage Hospital which stands close beside the Confer- 
ence Hall at Mildmay. This beautiful building was 
the gift of one lady — a memorial of a beloved son. 
The wards have been painted and decorated through- 
out by the skilful hands of two or three ladies. There 
is also a convalescent home at Barnet, which was given 
to Mildmay a year or two ago by Lord and Lady 
Tankerville, and has been the greatest blessing to the 
poor patients from the East End Missions. 



MILDMAY 3II88I0N8 TO THE JEWS. 

THERE is in America an almost universal scepti- 
cism about any large effect of Christianity on the 
Jews. If a collection were taken in many of our 
churches there would not be enough gleaned to buy a 
pair of shoes for this work. The Jews, as a people, have 
no hold on the sympathies of Americans ; many are glad 
that the religious partitions exist. They think of them 
only as sharpers, and few can be found who cannot give, 
whether true or false, a personal experience. They are 
avoided in hotels, because their children are often the 
terror of guests at meals, and show their contempt for 
the feelings of Christians on the Sabbath by bring- 
ing their needle-work into hotel parlors, or absorb all 
quiet by their class boisterousness. These truths or 
prejudices will live; and the Jews are largely to blame 



119 

for it. They, as a class, take no pains to placate this 
dislike, and where they have money when they could 
be conciliatory they are domineering; they evidently 
covet their isolation and yet complain of it bitterly. It 
would be unjust to say that this is universal, for there 
are remarkable exceptions of men and women who 
have not only won friendships among our people, but 
their admiration as well. Nor would the exceptions of 
which we have spoken be so exasperating if they did 
not know better, for they are an unusually intelligent 
people and are well up in knowledge of the proprieties 
and amenities of good society. 

"We do not say how much ground, in truth, there is 
for these national prejudices; we would prefer that they 
were confined to our people alone, for they will give up 
these society hostilities, but the Jews have been so long 
wronged and embittered that theirs are chronic, and 
can only be removed by long effort in kindness with all 
patience. These antagonisms are not so widely observa- 
ble now in Europe ; the best of the race are more and 
more appreciated, and the humbler of the Jews are more 
appreciative. The frigidness does not exist that once 
did in large portions of Europe; this Mildmay Insti- 
tution have taken the poor Jews and their condition 
under its sheltering arms. And their success has in con- 
siderable measure come out of the Millenarian doctrine 
touching our Lord's second personal coming, which is sur- 
prisingly prevalent in England. The moderate form of 
this belief would, in the States, be called Millenarianism, 
the more extreme Adventism, which is very prevalent, 
if not universal, among Plymouth Brethren and a very 
considerable portion of the clergy of the Church of 
England, and has a following also among Dissenters. 



120 

There are still distinct tracings of Irvingism. The 
people of this faith believe that the Jews must be re- 
stored to Palestine ere the coming of the Lord, and as 
it is always a wonderfully vi Lai belief they take hold of 
the work of Jewish conversion with great zeal and ag- 
gressiveness, while to the Jew it is not an unwelcome 
thought that he shall return to his own country and to 
the land of the graves of his fathers. It takes hold on 
both his religious convictions and patriotism, and this 
makes him far more accessible to the missionaries. He 
is ready to hear out of the New Testament any promise 
of this long desired end. The following are the words 
taken from the report of 1876 as to the object of the 
Mission : — " To preach Christ in Great Britain and Ire- 
land before the return of our Lord or the restoration 
of the Jews to Palestine." 

In Mildmay Sabbath-school work hundreds of chil- 
dren are gathered. The night-schools have been a 
great success. Medical dispensaries are another help- 
ful source of good among this people. As is the cus- 
tom, the Word of God is read before and during ex- 
amination and treatment, and it was strange to hear 
this people singing gospel hymns, the refrain to every 
verse being " Jesus, blessed Jesus," and what is more won- 
derful, to listen to the Jews disputing among themselves, 
and reading and comparing the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures to know if he indeed be the Christ, some affirming 
with great power and others doubting, but all, at least, 
reverent. We are informed that this service of discus- 
sion and searching the Scriptures goes on every week 
also in the mission of Eev. H. Grattan Guinness. The 
best method at our command to give an idea of the 
work going on in one Mission is to quote a few cullings 
from reports : 



121 

"Numbers of poor persecuted Jews pass through 
London and many stay here ; a large proportion of 
each class find their way to the Mission House and 
hear the gospel, and some carry it to other lands ; so 
that the work in London, we feel, must not be slack- 
ened, but, if possible, increased. The work in London 
— the medical mission, the convalescent home, the in- 
quirers' home, the children's home and other branches 
of the work — together with the itinerant Mission and 
Hebrew New Testament distribution abroad, seems ca- 
pable of unlimited extension. We are praying for the 
Lord's guidance as to attempts to reach the Jews in 
Sanaa, in Arabia, and those in other parts of the world, 
as in India, Africa and China, as well as the three or 
four millions in the Russian Empire." 

One of these Mission services was devoted to repeat- 
ing verses by the Hebrew children, showing that the 
Lord Jesus is lord of the hearts of the children, and that 
the curse that their parents brought upon unborn child- 
hood is being lifted in hosannas. Three hundred children 
cried, "Hosannain the Highest! God so loved the 
world ; Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, 
and no man cometh," &c, and sang two gospel hymns. 
At another meeting, next evening, for Jews and Jew- 
esses, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was read in He- 
brew, and Dr. Laseron gave a gospel message to them 
in German and English. Many of the Christian visi- 
tors and workers in the Institution talked with Jews 
and Jewesses and were surprised to find so many ad- 
mitting the Lord's Messiahship, though fearing to ac- 
knowledge him openly. It is estimated that there are 
about three thousand converted Jews in London, but 
the number interested and attending Christian sei vices 
and schools can only be counted by many thousands. 



122 

Of a single meeting at Mildmay (and in the several 
churches of London are many missions) the following 
account is given: — " Our largest gathering at one time 
is at Mildmay in June. To those in true sympathy with 
gospel work among the Jews, it was a wonderful gather- 
ing of more than five hundred and fifty. So eager were 
the- Jews to be present that they stormed the ticket-gate 
at Broad Street Station so that they could not be. counted 
till they got to Mildmay. The Jewish authorities at 
both ends of the journey tried to dissuade them from 
coming, but all to no avail.' ' 

We are informed that there is a wonderful religious 
activity among the Jews of Europe. Many of their 
strong men are studying the question of our Lord's 
Messiahship, not in a carping, cynical mood, but with 
deep and inquiring interest. The New Testament has 
been translated into Hebrew by Salkinson, and one 
hundred thousand of these were purchased by the Mild- 
may Mission. It had no money to pay for them, but 
let its wants be known, and a gentleman in Scotland 
sent a check for three thousand seven hundred and 
fifty pounds — eighteen thousand seven hundred and 
fifty dollars, the full amount. These are now being 
distributed in Russia, Pommerania, North-east Prussia. 
One of the remarkable men in this work is Joseph 
Rabinowitz, about whom the following extract will throw 
some light: 

" Concerning the state of our work here I can say, 
' Who hath believed our report ?' Thousands and tens 
of thousands are waiting for the permission from St. 
Petersburgh to be baptized in the name of the Father, 
Son and Holy Spirit. My sermons and addresses, 
which I publish in the Hebrew and Russian languages, 
are forwarded by the post to all the towns where Jews 



123 

reside, and thousands of our Jewish brethren are read- 
ing them attentively, and rejoice over them as over 
great treasures, according to the letters which I receive 
daily. There is scarcely a town in Russia where there 
are not some who belong to the 'sons of Israel of the 
new covenant.' On the last Day of Atonement, which 
fell this year on Saturday, our place of worship was 
too small to hold all the Jews who came to hear my 
sermon, which I preached upon Isaiah lviii. and Rom. 
xiii. 8-14. Many of our Jewish brethren had to stand 
at the open window and listen to my uplifted voice tell- 
ing my people of their trangression." 

A copy of his sermons is before us, and to give some 
idea of the man's matchless power we have culled some 
of his illustrations from one preached to the Jews in 
KischenefF, Bessarabia. 

Having read Gen. xii. 1-4 and John viii. 51-59, and 
after having offered prayers, the preacher said : 

" Brethren according to the flesh, many a time I 
have had the honor of attempting to rouse you from 
the sleep of sorrow in which you have fallen by reason 
of the great trials that overtook you in recent times, 
and to bring to your minds the words of the prophet 
Isaiah, (xlv. 25,) ' In the Lord shall all the seed of 
Israel be justified and shall glory.' This I shall repeat 
even a hundred and one times, that it is in vain you 
try to justify yourselves before the European nations 
by your wisdom, in which the learned among you pride 
themselves and say, 'Among us Jews, too, are philoso- 
phers, doctors, and men well versed in every branch of 
science, who with their books enrich the libraries/ &c, 
and you therefore think you have a right to enjoy the 
fruit of their labors. 



121 

" It is equally vain to boast of your ancestry ; that 
you are an everlasting people, offspring of the patri- 
archs of the world, the children of Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob, who found the truth at a time when the 
ancestors of the European nations were still living in 
gross darkness and after the lusts of the flesh. What 
has taken place recently, days in which you and the 
learned among you thought you needed no more the 
light of the sun by day, neither the brightness of the 
moon by night, looking upon modern science as your 
everlasting light, and learning to be your glory ! this 
has sufficiently revealed unto you that, after all, you 
are poor and destitute of every thing. There is no 
listening ear to your wisdom; first, 'the poor man's 
wisdom is despised,' said Solomon ; secondly, because 
the Europeans say, ' Your wisdom is ours, and your 
knowledge is our knowledge, and every thing new 
among you is ours ! for have you brought any thing of 
this kind with you when you came from Asia to Eu- 
rope whereby you could benefit her children ?' 

" The Talmud, with its ingenuity of which you boast, 
is still a sealed book to them. They say, ' Jew, take 
what is yours ; take the Talmud and go to Babylon 
with it.' As regards your boastings about your 
ancestry, are they too well acquainted with the 
fable of the geese who complained at the farmer 
for putting them in a basket like prisoners and car- 
rying them to the market to be sold, since their an- 
cestors were instrumental in saving Rome? The owner 
only replied, 'Yes, it is true, your ancestors were a 
means towards saving Rome ; but what have you done /' 
We have nothing but in God to glory. Only when we 
have turned in faith and love to the God of Israel, 
who alone is able to save, shall we be put on a level 



K-5 

with otlier nations; then our shame shall be taken 
away from us, and we shall dwell beneath the wings of 
our Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, the mighty God, the 
Prince of Peace. O my people ! you have fallen, you 
look sad, no one recognizing you. O yes, you are ill, 
and alas ! long are the days of your illness. The wise 
of all nations are astonished at you, not at the duration 
of your illness, but at the perpetuity of your existence. 
You are like a ship that was wrecked, but not sunk. 
You can see the top of its mast above the water mov- 
ing hither and thither. Many vessels pass by it, some 
reaching safely their destinations, others sinking to the 
bottom. But that wreck is in the same position ; it 
does not float, neither does it sink. You are in a simi- 
lar condition, my people Israel ! You are sick, wound- 
ed, fallen and bruised ; there is nothing whole on your 
body ; your head is failing you, your feet are heavy, 
all your feelings dead. But the heart is still beating, 
and now and then one can see some of your members 
move and struggle, and some features of life manifested 
in your face. You are still alive ; you still bear the 
name of Israel. You still reel to and fro in the sea of 
the nations ; you are not dead unto corruption ; neitr er 
are you alive among the living ! And in this fearful 
state you have been for centuries. It is a riddle ; and 
as such you have been looked upon by the wise of all 
nations. 

" But they consider the subject indifferently, only as 
a strange phenomenon in nature. They do it like geo- 
logical students about some island, instituting inquiries 
whether there was before all water, but by some means 
earth accumulated and became what it was, or it was 
before a large continent and the sea inundated it, and 
by-and-by it would be drowned altogether. It is in 



126 

this manner that the wise of the nations are investiga- 
ting you. But this is not the case with your brother 
and your kinsman, whose soul is mourning over your 
present deplorable state without any token for good !" 

He then describes the interpreters who have tried to 
account for the condition of the Jews without Christ, 
the Palestine folly of Mendelson as a future hope and 
realization of the prophesy. " When Israel returns to 
the land which she left eighteen hundred years ago it 
will be when Messiah Jesus leads. But how do they 
mean that you shall return ? I will tell you what these 
vain talkers are like. They are like to three physicians 
who met around the bed on which was lying a man 
very dangerously ill, who suffered fearfully and who 
could not stir a limb. The first phydcian asked what 
his occupation was ; the second inquired after his name, 
in order to be able to write the prescription, as if the 
name formed a vital factor among the ingredients ; the 
third thinking how he could change the position of the 
bed! Not one of them thought of the dangerous state 
in which that patient was ; the few numbered moments 
he had left vanished in the meanwhile, and his end 
came quickly to go into the grave where there is no 
question about names, occupation or places. Such are 
your physicians, O Israel ! 

"And what will you do now? Are ycu going to 
wait another two thousand years, trying the latest medi- 
cine, the colonization of Palestine with the money cf 
the rich, a scheme which is founded on nothing ? 

" Take this to heart, dear brethren ! Reject not the 
love for untruth, but accept it in your hearts. Draw 
nigh to your Messiah and your King Jesus, and lie 
will remove the blindness from your eyes. You are, 
allegorically, that blind man, concerning whom the dis- 



127 

ciples asked our Lord, ' Who did sin, this man or his 
parents, that he Avas born blind?' And Jesus an- 
swered, ' Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents ; 
but that the works of God should be made manifest in 
him.' (John is. 2, 3.) You are blind, O Israel! the 
light of tho world is hid from you, and you are beset 
with stumbling-blocks on all sides." 

After the Sabbath evening service at Mildmay, Rev. 
Mr. Adler said that a communion would be held in a 
few minutes in the Jewish chapel. We had never seen 
a Jewish communion, and had only the history thereof 
enveloped in nearly nineteen centuries of shadows, when 
the Lord in the upper room took bread and gave to 
his Jewish communicants and bade them continue it 
until he should come again in memory of his death, so 
soon to be consummated. In this little upper room 
in London, fifteen or twenty feet square, were texts in 
Hebrew characters on the walls and a dim light, which 
impressed us with the thought that it was not unlike the 
upper room where the first supper was instituted. There 
was a little stand on which were four little pieces of bread 
and a cup of wine and about a dozen present, the pastor 
and his wife, the others young Jewish men ; two of them 
had been baptized the Sabbath night before. They were 
devout and tender, when the Scripture was read they 
followed each word. The pastor read a portion de- 
scribing the passion of our Lord and offered a prayer, 
and while he asked God's grace for these young disci- 
ples, so often sorely tried, he prayed for those who had 
gone so lately from that little upjDer room far away on 
their soul-saving missions. Two had just started, dis- 
tributing the Hebrew New Testament in Russia. One 
was on the sea on his return from Africa, others were in 
other parts of the world, but he knew them all and 



128 

prayed for them , to every petition of which the young Jews, 
upon their knees, responded. The hymn sung was theone 
the closing line of which is, " Dear Lord, remember me." 
It was a scene of strange impressiveness and signifi- 
cance. "We had never thought of communing with the 
Lord and his kinsmen according to the flesh. It was 
a precious season in which his presence was felt and 
the light of his countenance seemed to suffuse our very 
thoughts. The man of God gave to each of those young 
men a blessing as they took the emblems of that body 
which their fathers had slain. It is near two thousand 
years since Israel assumed a curse and sent it down 
upon the unborn of all succeeding generations, but the 
slain Jesus is lifting that curse and breaking its power 
and bringing Israel back to their long-lost fellowship 
with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. What won- 
ders hath the cross wrought. We parted from those 
Israelites glad because of the precious privilege they had 
given us and confirmed in the hope that Israel will soon 
be saved. 



THE ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

FROM 1647 to 16G2 the Presbyterian Church was 
established in England. In the latter year the 
Act of Uniformity to the Prayer-book was passed, and 
two thousand ministers for conscience sake gave up 
their charges and their places were filled by Episco- 
palians. In 1689, when the Toleration Act was passed 
under William III., the Presbyterian Church arose 
from the dead. In less than three years eight hun- 
dred united with the Independents, yielding much of 



129 

the Westminster Standards. After this " happy union," 
but deplorable blunder, discipline lapsed and sessions 
disappeared. Out of these Presbyterian defections from 
strict church government grew first Socinianism and 
then the Unitarianism of which we shall speak. The 
present Presbyterian Church is the survival of the re- 
maining loyal part. Twenty-two congregations founded 
before 1730 are still in existence, while it is claimed 
that one hundred and seventy churches, originally 
Presbyterians, are now in the possession of the Unita- 
rian body. Its unity then became a bundle of frag- 
ments, and nobody has been able to say more than that 
it has lived like a paralytic, with one side dead. It 
has lived because Presbyterianism represents the truth 
and the sacrifices God's people will make for the truth, 
and is, therefore, indestructible. But it belongs to the 
remnants of that glorious salvage unto which the apostle 
foreshadows final salvation. It lives now like a pear 
tree in the back yard, which thoughtless children have 
hacked half around its body, but it still bears fruit in 
its season, some plump and luscious, but much that 
never comes to perfection. 

The case stands about thus between the two halves ; 
the schismatic half has suffered most in deterioration. 
When a church breaks open one side slides downhill 
and the other has for a long time no progress ; in long, 
weary years its life goes as sap or serum, with which 
the body covers its hurts, to repair its wounds, to pre- 
vent further decay. About one-half of the Unitarian 
fragment went toward the cities of " The Plain," where 
it is well watered and the land is redundant with liberty 
and covered with flowers whose odors were thought to be 
efficient for the healing of the nations. They have " pro- 
gressed" over to Humanitarianism and Universalism, 



130 

and are now trying to get rid of Revelation, and have 
passed Redemption long ago, and are eyeing the heavens 
for a new star to guide their crazy craft into port. 

The other Unitarian half is divided about equally be- 
tween the Congregational form of government and the 
Presbyterian. What they have inside their governmental 
titles no one knows. The Unitarians claim, in all shades 
of color, three hundred and fifty churches in England, 
but they are sickly, and have no hope better than of a 
lingering death. There is no unity of movement, and 
ossification of the heart is imminent. They have made 
no real progress, having used up their vitality, and in a 
century more will sleep with their fathers. A respecta- 
ble Unitarian, and a gentleman of high standing, in 
the advanced faith, said, " You will not find five hun- 
dred Arians in the whole body in England." So much 
for progressive religion. 

Of the Presbyterian fragment we may say they have 
kept the faith, they have not lost ground, and they 
have endured and hoped. They have united their 
fragments and are one again, and to change figures, 
they are repairing the old craft on all sides, which was 
so badly beached in the rupture, and are working her 
slowly out into the channel of public favor, and have 
more than a dozen strong churches in London, with 
able men at the helm, both as pastors and elders. They 
have determination and Presbyterian stubbornness in 
their fight against fearful odds. They raise a great 
deal of money for their ministers, and are, so far as we 
can see, using it wisely. They are pushing their mis- 
sion work with loving zeal at home and abroad. The 
Presbyterial Blue Book shows superior care through 
Presbyterial commissioners or committees of individual 
churches. We must not forget that the obstacles in the 



131 

way of this Chureli are not only in the national set-back 
she got in the division, the loss of prestige, and the hos- 
tilities of her dismembered parts, but in the fragmentary 
condition of her own body, which continued through all 
that nearly hopeless period until within the last eleven 
years. There were three principal fragments. The United 
Presbyterian part was partially a mission of the same 
body in Scotland, receiving from the mother Church a 
yearly support of hundreds of pounds. When the 
union was consummated it was considered a heavy load 
to be taken by the two branches in England. The 
United Presbyterians of Scotland came generously for- 
ward and guaranteed the continuance of this large 
amount for five years. The disturbing fear was that 
the united body could not meet the exigency when the 
period of five years should be past. This they have 
done, and more, which is a mark of substantial pro- 
gress. The elements seem to be in a tolerable condi- 
tion of fusion ; of course, reunions require a long time 
— indeed, until most of the representative men of the 
separate parts are gone, and the united church is 
crippled long after by a conservative course, lest some- 
body may be offended and some flaw in the weld dis- 
covered. 

The Minutes of 1877 give 258 congregations, 266 
ministers, 15 foreign missionaries, 46,540 communi- 
cants, and £164,862 income. At present there are 
286 congregations, 285 ministers, 15 foreign missiona- 
ries, 10 Presbyteries; ministers without charge and pro- 
bationers 42 ; 18 vacant charges and 61,781 communi- 
cants — a net gain of 15,341 for eleven years ; 761 gain 
for the last year. Since the union of 1876 there have 
been 24 churches organized, 14 of which are within 
the Presbytery of London, which takes in the South of 



132 

England. These figures show that conversions and 
spiritual growth are not encouraging, but we hope that 
they have been hindered by the difficulties arising in 
their consolidation. 

These English Presbyterian churches are hard-work- 
ing. We have in our country nothing to compare with 
their work along certain lines. In teaching the truths 
of the Word of God, in season and out of season ; in 
sowing seed in good ground and everywhere else ; in 
steadiness of purpose and in an unwearying round of 
specified duties, they are simply wonderful. But in the 
eyes of a stranger there are most serious defects. We 
know some of our English Presbyterian brethren will 
repudiate this, and think it great impertinence for an 
American to criticise, for whom their feeling is too 
often that of commiseration or of patronage large and 
free. That a nation in its babyhood should have made 
so much progress in imitating England is altogether a 
marvel, in which a superior ought to encourage an in- 
ferior. Some of these dear brethren may not know it, 
but they have the idea that what they do not know 
about managing church work is hardly worth speaking 
of. We are not saying this from any pique, for they . 
have treated us with great cordiality, so far as we 
have come in contact with them. Nor are our stric- 
tures laid upon all, for many Englishmen have been 
in our country, and if not, have associated with 
our religious people, and are cosmopolitan in their 
ideas and sympathies. We met not a few of this 
kind, but nevertheless there is a sentiment pretty gener- 
ally diffused that any thing that comes from America 
is to be at least severely scanned, depreciated and gen- 
erally thrown aside, except such modes of work as have 
so much power in them that they will bore through the 



133 

prejudices of old age, as a steam drill through chilled 
iron. A vast amount of real knowledge never finds 
formulation in words, it is known and lead by intui- 
tion. " You feel it in your bones," and bones do not 
lie, though these "bone instincts" cannot always be 
presented in diagrams or axioms. We believe that 
there is far more of this thing in the English Church 
than in the Scotch. Largeness and generosity are akin, 
and wondrous kind. The Irish are almost entirely free 
from this prejudice, though as intellectual, and the reason 
is they are a more adaptable people, and shed their preju- 
dices as freely as some creatures their skins. It is a 
blessed thing that death has passed on all that is un- 
lovely as well as lovely, and that it is from the tops of 
gravestones that we survey the world's progress and step 
upward in its motions. 

This criticism of what appear to be defects in 
English modes of works is not meant to exasperate 
the Englishmen, but to help Americans. There is 
a faithfulness to duty in England, often under the 
greatest discouragements, that is never seen cr real- 
ized in action with us. We wish it could be so im- 
pressed that we would imitate all that is good in 
the work of our brethren in the faith. Our failings 
are the converse of theirs, we despise all that is old and 
has stood the shocks of the ages, while theirs, as it 
seems to us, is to undervalue the wisdom and energy of 
youth. Old age is an essential part of the Church ever 
to be revered, because the wisdom of the years is in it, 
but a church governed alone by old age, and moved in 
the grooves which the past has cut in its policies of 
progress, is surely dead. The mode of procedure is in- 
adequate in the relation of the church to the children. 
Kirk sessions are afraid to trust children at the Lord's 



134 



table. They are too much afraid of the covenant by which 
children born of believing parents are made members, 
and if the covenant is sufficient to bring them into this 
relation it is sufficient to give them the grace of faith 
and repentance when they have come to yeara and 
grace to discern the Lord's body, and to carry them 
safely through. 

We believe the covenant by which they come into 
relation with the Church at the first is potentially all 
that is needed to take them into the kingdom of glory. 
The gift of the Holy Spirit is included to open their eyes 
to their sinfulness, to their need of new natures, to the di- 
vine mode of giving and obtaining these through faith in 
Christ Jesus as he is offered in the gospel. If parents can 
trust their children to Christ through faith in him and 
for them, when they have come to consciousness they 
can trust his promises, which are so full in their behalf 
to bring them into communion with Christ in the church. 
When "they can discern the Lord's body" is when they 
discern their need of a Saviour and receive Christ as 
such and rely on him alone for salvation. Then what 
absurdity it is on one side and want of faith on the other 
to discourage a well-taught child of ten years from full 
membership by admission to the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper, when men and women at forty are ad- 
mitted with the sins of years in weakening habits cling- 
ing to them, who do not know as much of Christ Jesus, 
whose consciences have been hardened as heathen 
who have every thing against them, who when they 
are received into full communion with the church have 
less clear and definite knowledge than the child of 
ten years in a God-fearing family. Such notions 
would destroy all our Foreign Missions and close 
the work, and write upon the frontlets of all heathen- 



135 

ism, " Without God, without Christ and without hope 
in the world." 

We heard, on all sides, that while men and women 
attend church and are eager and ardent to study the 
Word and give the means of grace to the perish- 
ing, they will not come into the church themselves, and 
will not obey the Lord's dying command, and the 
solution is that they were not brought in soon enough, 
the unbelief of the church shut the door until the age 
came that they did not think that the Lord's command 
was either desirable or necessary. The church is 
looked upon too much as a field for sheep, but the 
lambs must be kept outside until they are old enough 
to be shorn, and there the devil has as fair a chance 
for the first fleece. The truth is the church is the 
place for the lambs, and weaklings are nurtured and 
disciplined until they are able to stand about as senti- 
nels to guard it from all dangers. It is a common- 
place remark that the church is a nursery ; true, but is 
it for old age or childhood ? For both, for in either 
extreme they are alike. We have no patience with 
the notion that men and women are to be received at 
the Lord's table by age or intellectual apprehension, 
rather let it be by need. God can take care of them, 
and what of it if some of the lambs do stray, there will 
not be so many as of those who are twenty-five years 
old and upwards, and the difference will be that the 
lost lamb will bleat for the fold in its last hours, while 
those received at maturer years who stray will go to the 
wolves. 

More than once we have met men and women sick 
or dying over great earthly affliction, and have learned 
that they were backsliders, and found too that it was 
far easier to get them back as penitents over a way 



136 

that tliey had trodden before, than to teach aliens about 
Christ Jesus and his salvation and bring to the cross 
in dying hours those who knew little or nothing ex- 
cept what was told them, while braced up by anodynes 
or by the forlorn hope against despair of being saved 
somehow. It is a fatal lack of faith which rejects an 
inquiring, tender child asking for the arms of the 
Lamb of God. While the Church is touched to the 
heart at such an exhibition of childhood trust, it says, 
"Not now, my child," and recommends that it should 
be buried in a snow-bank, if it can live there some 
years, until it is seventeen, eighteen or twenty years ; 
then the Church will bring it in and give it wine and 
milk and put its sheltering arms around it, especially 
as it has lived so long without the Church. 

We verily believe that this Church unbelief plays 
no unimportant part in the manifest unchurchliness 
seen and felt all over England. If these children were 
received according to what we understand to be the 
Presbyterian faith and teachings, and afterward had 
that wonderful Christian instruction for which the 
English Presbyterian Church is so justly eminent, 
there would not be one in ten of them who would 
neglect the d} r ing command of our Lord, " Do this in 
remembrance of me.' ' The Church itself would ever 
be to them precious as the body of the Lord Jesus. 

The second defect in the work of the Presbyterian 
Church in England is that it fails with the great class 
of artisans and shop-keepers, the middle classes through- 
out, while it has made wonderful provision for the de- 
graded poor and is accomplishing much in this direc- 
tion. There is an admitted failure on all sides to 
reach this most important class who are drifting off 
into infidelity, or into absolute indifference i<) ; 11 



137 

Church relations. Of course, we do not assert that 
this is universally so, but it is far too general. 
In conversation with many of the best Christian 
workers it was admitted and deplored. Part of it i3 
traceable to what we have indicated as a radical 
mistake in not receiving children into full fellow- 
ship when they are young and impressible under the 
Divine Spirit. Then again the middle class, intelligent 
and independent, with the pride and self-respect which 
the ability of self-support always gives, have fallen into 
the chasm between extremes. They will not go to a 
church where they are overshadowed by higher class 
distinctions, for it is in the churches very much as on 
the railways. First class, nobility, and as the English 
say, American fools ; second class, for people in good 
circumstances, and third class for the rest. The third 
class receive great attention in Church work, because 
they are so low that pity and piety go arm-and-arm to 
their help. The first class has been provided for by 
the wealth of other ages, they are comfortable in great 
cathedrals and stately edifices that never cost them a 
dollar. Nor do they pay their clergyman, he is 
paid out of moneys provided by the dead. But the 
second class, the bone and sinew of England, thejnen 
out of whose brains and muscle come her daily products, 
have no second class churches or meeting-houses. 
They will not go with the nobility or the aristocracy 
of wealth, the most oppressive of the earth, often of 
their own level in society, who have climbed on the 
golden stairs. Nor will this class of thinking, active 
men and women go down to the miserable missions, as 
they caT -them, of pauperism. So that the standing, 
unsolved problem is, " To whom shall they go?" 



138 



What should be done is a vital question. Some- 
thing effective will have to be done soon or the coupling 
between the two extreme ends of society will drop out. 
In our judgment this can only be realized by the 
blessed truth that by man shall man be saved; by 
encouragement to those who can be found in this 
class to work among their own kind — above all, to 
avoid, even in appearance, any idea of patronage. 
Building places of worship and schools for them must 
not be thought of, they should be started out to build 
their own churches and encouraged to help themselves. 
Let it be understood that they are managing and their 
friends are helping. Nothing disgusts men and women 
who have the self-respect of self-support more than pau- 
per methods. Then give the middle class of England a 
fair chance, for from these neglected classes come 
the defence, the heroism and the might of the em- 
pire. Give them preachers; men who can adapt 
themselves to the intellectual and moral exigencies of 
the hour ; men of magnetism, men of the people, and 
not dried snobs, ever lying, like Lazarus, desiring to be 
fed from the crumbs that fall from the tables of first 
caste ; men who have faith to believe that the Church of 
Jesus Christ will go on and conquer if the Lord High 
Commissioner, or the Earl of Sunset, or Lord Morning 
does not preside at the missionary meetings, to give the 
work of Christ greater respectability. There is to a 
stranger, too, much of the eleemosynary in church and 
mission work to reach the class most inaccessible. To 
the poor there is not in the Christian world such effort 
to lift them. The labor of English Christians in this 
respect is absolutely sublime. 

The third point of defect which a stranger would ob- 
serve in the Presbyterian Church in England is that it 



130 

is a foreigner, an illustrious, glorious foreigner, greater 
and better than the centurion interceded for before 
Christ, because "he loved our nation and hath built us 
a synagogue," but a foreigner for all that. 

The present English Presbyterian Church cannot be 
said to be indigenous to the sod. We have been in sev- 
eral of the churches during our two tours, and cannot 
tell the difference between any of them and those in Scot- 
land. One would be as much puzzled as to the difference 
as Bridget was when, fresh from Ireland, she desired to 
go to worship in the cathedral of the late Bishop Wood, 
in Philadelphia. After being directed by her mistress 
she went to the western side of Logan Square, and soon 
got into "High-church" St. Clements, and there enjoyed 
herself exceedingly. She thought that spiritually she 
was in dear old Ireland, and in the Holy Eoman Catho- 
lic church. When she returned her mistress asked her 
how she liked the church, and if there was any differ- 
ence between the Catholic Church in America and Ire- 
land. " None at all, at all, mum ; except I could not 
find the holy wather." 

We do not say aught against the grand old Scotch 
mother-church, from which some of our ancestors 
were driven in the very English experiment which 
the Scotch Church in England is making, trying 
to woo the English by Scotch church ways ; the very 
thing the Scotch fought and shed their martyr-blood 
to keep the English Establishment from doing in their 
experiment long ago of ecclesiastically Anglacising 
Scotland. The Scotch hated King James' wooing, 
and his conscientiousness only made it all the worse. 
The teachings of Scotland and her doctrines based 
upon them are firmer than her granite, the best formu- 
lations of gospel truth and ethics on earth, and have made 



140 

Scotland what she is. Her church modes of worship, and 
policies, and habits of thought are the best for Scot- 
land, but may not be the best for other countries. 
Keep her faith, but put it aboard a craft better suited 
to the headland reefs and shoals over which it must be 
navigated. Nothing stings the pride of nationalities, 
which even grace does not take away, like foreign re- 
ligious importations. The raw material may be par- 
doned if the manufacturing at least be done at home. 
We all know how long our Scotch brethren in America 
(long may they live and prosper!) fretted their right- 
eous souls because the Church of America would not 
work in Scotch harness. But with us, that Scotch 
foresight for which they are so renowned convinced 
them that if America would not go into Scotch ways 
the best and surest thing was for Scotchmen to go into 
American ways. Now, the Scottish lark sings more 
like the American mocking-bird than the bird himself. 

The same fact which, as we believe, hinders the pro- 
gress of the Presbyterian Church in England has hin- 
dered all our efforts to introduce Presbyterianism into 
Boston. There is some showing among the Scotch and 
Irish, and of those from the Canadian provinces ; but 
Presbyterianism will never take root in New England 
until it does so through the Yankees. It must suit 
their tastes before it will be chosen, and this will be 
the result of wise Christian adjustment, by which some 
features of church polity will be adapted to their habits 
of thought, to the chronic condition of society, and 
they will throw overboard some things not worth carry- 
ing on the new craft. 

We believe that the same national pride exists on 
the English that we know does on the Scotch side, and 
the English Church will have to grow more plastic, and 



141 

adaptable, and nimble in its modes of operation, or 
fifty years hence will find it no more English than it is 
now. Outside of the Established Church English 
thought and habit of life turns to Congregationalism, 
where the congregation at large has more to do with 
moulding the modes of operation in the church. We 
know how easily the Presbyterial form can be adjusted 
to this ; our thousands of Congregationalist members, 
loyal and true, prove that this is not only possible, but 
easily done. 

On the other side, for there are two directions for 
aggressive work, there are multitudes of heart-sick 
evangelical Episcopalians who cannot endure Ritual- 
ism and semi-Romanism. These cannot give up all 
their devotional habits, and such a liturgy as has been 
used in the great historic Presbyterian Churches, andjis 
now used largely by the Methodist Church in England, 
would not, it seems to us, be without result. This may 
all be impracticable for the Presbyterian Church in 
Eugland; all we can say we gather from facts out of the 
history of the Church in America. If the best congre- 
gation of this good old historic Church in Scotland were 
transferred to America its doctrines and preaching 
would be admired, but few would go into it but Scotch 
people "to the manor born." Their children would 
leave it and go to that which is indigenous to the soil, 
and soon it would be a monument of the good it had 
done. 

To Christian men and women of our own faith it is 
unnecessary to say that we have any other animus than 
to give our people the impressions of one of their number 
of the superiorities and defects, as they appear, in the 
same Presbyterian Church across the ocean, just as we 
expect them to do about us ; and indeed, what the 



143 

English people have done with great freeness and ful- 
ness, without the slightest shadow of apology. 

The Methodists have in the average of about a cen- 
tury and half done well. They have of all shades 
eight hundred thousand members. They have shown 
their adaptability to English life and habits ot thought. 
They push both down and out ; their tap-root has run 
down among the lower masses, but they have sent their 
roots out among the middle classes. They have had none 
of the weakening effects of patronage from any quarter, 
expect only to support themselves and to push out into 
fields beyond by the'r own zeal and money. They 
have done it, and have demonstrated their right and 
ability to occupy England by growing from amongst the 
English. But they have at this time their troubles. Vital 
piety is not what it has been. An eminent minister 
connected with the Book Concern said, "We have 
never sold and put into circulation so much religious 
literature. We never had so much money ; we would 
not dare set a limit to what our people could or would 
do for benevolent work ; they will give every thing 
more readily than themselves. We have about five 
hundred thousand members who come to the sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper, but multitudes will not come to 
class-meetings, and while the numbers of those who 
profess to be Methodists are increasing, the devout men 
and women who are ready to take up their cross and 
confess Christ in prayer-meetings and class-meetings 
are, we fear, decreasing. In other words, the Church 
is growing in nominal Methodism ; the multitude is in- 
creasing of those who train under her banners on 
parade days, who say we are Methodists without its 
power of a sacrificial and holy life." And this is not 
peculiar to our Methodist brethren, but to all men 



143 

and women ready to march in line who are not 
quite ready for the fatigues of the battle. Many 
will study the Scriptures and give to benevolence 
who will not separate themselves from the general 
worldliness of daily life. These brethren have sown 
and are sowing bounteously. But their harvesting and 
garnering are not equal to their sowing, and nobody 
knows better than devout Methodists what is the cause. 
They need genuine revivals, old-fashioned Wesleyan 
revivals, the kind that make sinners tremble, and 
either kills or cures cold-heartedness and its hypocri- 
sies, and creates heart-action, and from it vital heat 
and motion. 

The Congregationalists are doctrinally mixed. They 
have not the real strength of some other bodies less in 
numbers because they are not as united in government 
and vital doctrinal beliefs. New England Congrega- 
tionalism is a fair reflection of what it is on this side. 
Broad-churchism is more prevalent here than in any 
other of the evangelical denominations, unless it be in 
the Established Church. But with all these weaken- 
ing deflections it is a strong body, fairly active in the 
great work of saving and edifying souls. It labors 
under the disadvantage of no general ecclesiastical 
organization, such as the Episcopacy, Methodists and 
Presbyterians have, and while perhaps it has more 
freedom, in a certain sense, it has less power. It has 
a fair proportion of strong men, not a few of spiritual and 
intellectual might. They have the advantage in their 
work of being born on English soul, it is said in 1580 
under the title of " Brownists." The exigencies out of 
which the church came still exist, or it would be dy- 
ing. Instead they have in England and Wales 2,665 
regularly ordained ministers, 8,316 churches, and in- 



114 

creasing about eighty a year, and places of worship 
built by private liberality one hundred and twenty per 
annum. 

The Baptists of the Nonconformists rank next in 
numerical strength, and are equal to the strongest in 
work and present progress, and are growing with un- 
usual power. Mr. Spurgeon is the great central figure, 
though they have other men of quite his ability, but 
who have not his reputation nor his English level- 
headedness in good ecclesiastical management. He 
introduced new ideas into work. The complaint which 
lies against some churches of being afraid to receive 
the children into the church has no sympathy with 
him. He declares his belief that a greater proportion 
of them will attain unto eternal life under the same 
means of grace than of adults, and points to matured, 
stalwart Christians in his own church received at an 
age that would frighten many conservatives in all 
churches. His orphanage work is wonderful, but as 
we have described others of like kind we need add 
nothing further. One of the greatest services to the 
Baptist Church is a living ministry of devout young 
men, who have been inspired by his piety and genius, 
and taught by his aggressive and progressive methods 
how to reach the multitudes, and from observation we 
believe that the Baptist brethren keep the church 
more prominently before men as the divine provision 
for the spiritual upbuilding of the regenerated soul than 
any other Nonconformists. They have urged men and 
women first to Christ and next to the Church straight- 
way, and have more organized results from this method. 
The first General (Arminian) Baptist church is said to 
have been formed in London in 1607; the first Par- 
ticular (Calvinistic) church in 1616. Churches in the 



145 



United Kingdom, 2,713; members, 315,939; pastors in 
charge, 1,893, besides about 400 ministers without 
a charge. Many ministers are also engaged in secular 
business. 



JETSAM AND FLOTSAM; OB, THINGS PICKED UP 
IN LONDON. 

|F things picked up by the way in London it may 
be interesting to our readers to give a chapter of 
impressions suggested by things seen in daily walks. 
Things come before thoughts, and in the law of asso- 
ciation they have a supreme place. They project 
events and often start directly the cheeriest or sad- 
dest emotions. An example of this commands attention 
and reflection in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. There 
is a recumbent statue in bronze, chaste to severity, but 
looking as if a thing of life, inducing the saddest reflec- 
tions, for the cold metal statue seems to have come into 
existence as if lighted by a chastened soul. On the end, 
just at the feet of the recumbent form, is the inscription, 
as nearly as can be remembered, " To the memory of 
Charles George Gordon, who fell in the Soudan. Erected 
by his brother, who also lost a son in the same contest." 
The form wears the highest expression of the peaceful- 
ness of the warrior after the conflict is over. It is the 
best comment in existence upon the words, " Let the 
world rave, I sleep well." 

The artist for the time must have borrowed the soul 
of the hero, for it is there as men knew him. He is 
represented in his uniform, for without it the world 
would not know the man. He is impersonated there 



146 

lying with his military cloak loosely wrapped about tis 
person, and without title. The artist well knew that pos- 
terity would supply this. The titles of Christian and 
hero will live on the imperishable tablets of memory as 
long as either name shall be great. One does not care 
to stay long at this monument, because indignation forces 
reverence away, owing to the fact that the statue sug- 
gests more the dishonor of England than the glory 
of the name it bears. Others who never did so well for 
their country as Gordon have been brought home amid 
a nation's grief at the expense of the government. 
Vast armies followed their remains with reversed arms 
and muffled tones. Great orators spoke of their deeds ; 
great poets sang. But this one, born for an ill-starred 
ending, was the martyr to perfidy, a martyr to his trust 
in a government not worthy of it, and to obedience unto 
death under deception. He was by his trust and truth- 
fulness and obedience to command compelled to die as 
the fool dieth, and but for a brother's love and sacrifice 
his dust would be as dishonored as his name has been; 
for dastardly officials or party henchmen have tried 
to cover their own infamy in traducing one whom 
they had led to the slaughter. But the people have 
strangled his traducers, so that it is not now the thing 
to call him a crank, a drunkard, a plotter for his own 
aggrandizement. Where the responsibility lies we do 
not care to know. God knows, and the story, black 
enough to cast a shadow on the pit, will out, and when 
it does history will put the mark of Cain across the 
guilty names, though they may be written on bronze or 
on statue large, perched on pillar or under the fretted 
ceiling which covers the nation's illustrious dead. 

England is great in monuments, but greater in living 
memorials of her Christianity. She believes, as no 



147 



other nation, in the saving power of God's Word — it 
is foremost. On her great commercial buildings is in- 
scribed, " The earth is the Lord's and the fulness there- 
of," on her palaces and her monuments, on the pillars 
of the throne, on the crown, and in the heart of her 
Queen it is written; in her humbler places as well, 
in hotels, in waiting-rooms, in railway stations, on 
arches, it is blown on the wings of the wind. Christian 
literature is wafted as leaves from the tree of life. If 
one sits down by a centre table while in a hotel there 
is the Bible or something short, attractive and good, 
challenging even careless attention, and such is the 
reverence of men for it that more than once have we 
seen men take hold of the leaflet-tract to tear it to light 
a cigar, but instead sit down to read it while they 
smoked. The tract, doomed with us, is a power 
here, and the reason is that it is not more than four 
inches square and not more than six pages long, and 
has first some scrap of history, some thrilling incident 
in life, some fact of modern science, ingeniously utilized 
to the work of saving the soul. All are readable, some 
exceedingly interesting, and some thrilling. Laboring 
men read them, children will beg for them, and people 
pick them up and carry them on the cars, and often 
will ask for and buy them to while away the time of 
the long journeys before them. In the stations no poor 
girl without money or friends need be led off by 
those beasts of prey who seek to entrap the unwary, 
for everywhere she will see printed in clear type the 
name of the "Young Women's Christian Associations" 
and kindred institutions, the street, the very door being 
described. In the waiting-room of the London Bridge 
Terminus no less than six places were thus described, 
and the homeless and wayfaring daughters of toil and 



148- 

poverty invited. We could but ask how is it that we 
have no such literature and no colporteurs at the sta- 
tions to thus warn and direct perplexed strangers, 
so easily deceived by apparent friends in time of need. 
The church has Boards ostensibly for this kind of work, 
but we do not see the literature except when mouldering 
on the shelves of the book-stores, and less than twenty 
colporteurs for the whole United States, and the income 
of a good candy shop, which the Assembly reduces by 
investigations that cost $5,000. 

There is an unestimated power in a single seed. In 
the Alps a seed dropped by the wind or a bird in a 
crevice on the rocky side of a mountain rose up heaven- 
ward in the shape of a lofty pine, whose leverage, in its 
growth, loosened great masses of rock from their ancient 
bed. So a word has done more in the moral world. 
It has broken stony hearts, subdued the wrath of more 
than iron wills, and has disarmed God's proudest foes. 

There is a story illustrating the power of a single 
seed-corn of eternal life, which of itself alone gives 
assurance of the promise, My word " shall not return 
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I 
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent 
it." One of those " wharf-rats," who live among the 
piles of freight and subsist upon the bounty of sailors, 
or upon which they can steal, was shivering in the keen 
December blasts which were sweeping up the bay. 
A Christlike Samaritan with an assuring voice said, 
"My little man, what are you doing here? Don't you 
know that it is not right for little fellows like you to 
be on the streets at night? Besides, the 'cops' will 
nab you. Come, go home." 

" I have no home and no bed. Sometimes I get in 
among the sacks or under a tarpaulin, and then I 



149 

am all right, but I have had nothing to eat to-night, 
and am waitin' for the fellows to come. We have a 
dead sure thing of it if there is no slip." 

" That's bad indeed. You will get caught and go 
to prison." 

" O, I don't care much for that now as it is winter." 

" But do you know that God will be grieved with 
you, because he has said ' thou shalt not steal ?' " 

" O, I guess he won't be hard on a poor chap like 
me. He says he'll take care of sparrows, and they are 
the biggest thieves agoin'?" 

"This is very sad," said the Samaritan. "Would 
you go to a home and a warm bed if I give you one 
and leave off your bad ways ?" 

"I guess I would, quick ; just try me on that tack, 
mister." 

"Well, I will give you one. Here is the number." 
Before he could say more the wharf-rat was off. 

"Hold on a minute," said the Samaritan. "I have 
not given you the key to get in. Here it is. When 
they ask your name you say John iii. 16. Don't for- 
get it. You can't get in without it." 

The boy started off, first on a trot and then on a run, 
saying every step, lest he should forget it, " John iii. 16," 
until he found himself at the door. He pulled the bell 
until it startled the whole house, and the door was 
scarcely ajar until he was shouting, "John iii. 16!" 

"What's your name?" said the woman. 

"John iii. 16." 

"Where did you come from?" But he was not 
going to tell them that he was a wharf-rat or a thief, 
so he shouted, "John iii. 16!" 

"How old are you?" said she. 

"John iii. 16." 



150 

"Where are your parents?" 

"Haven't any. I am John iii. 16." 

"Well," said the motherly woman, " come in, John 
iii. 16. You seem to know nothing else, but it's enough 
to open heaven, and ought to open the hearts of God's 
people." 

He was fed, washed and tucked away in a clean bed, 
and as he thought how much better than a cellar-door, 
coffee-sack or grain-bag on the wharf this was he 
said to himself, " This is a mighty good key to get into 
warm places. I wonder if all the fine houses I see 
would open to it as easily as this has done. I wonder 
what it means ? I will ask first thing in the morning." 
So, for fear he would lose it, he kept saying it over and 
over, and dropped asleep, saying in smothered tones, 
"John iii. 16." When he awoke in the morning and 
came down-stairs among the other happy children the 
boys asked his name. "John iii. 16," he shouted. 
Some laughed and said they never heard of such a 
name; but one said, " You must be fools, fellows. It's 
in the Testament. I can show it to you. Here it is: 
' God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not per- 
ish but have everlasting life.' " 

"Is that what it means?" said the new-comer. 

"Yes," said the older boy. 

"But I can't read? How shall I know it?" • 

" I will teach it to you," and so the precious work 
began of one waif teaching another the way of life. 

But after his breakfast he was sent out again to find 
something to do, for the place where he had stayed was 
a lodging only for the night. He had nearly learned 
the sixteenth verse, and was so absorbed in saying it 
over to himself that a beer-wagon, driven at a furious 



151 



rate, ran over hini, and he was picked up all mangled 
and carried to the hospital, conscious but nearly gone. 
And there he was again asked his name, but even in 
his agonies he determined, die or live, he would not 
give up his new name, so he said, "John iii. 16." He 
was asked again and again, but replied always the same. 
At last the superintendent said, " The poor boy is out 
of his mind, and I fear he will never come into it again. 
It don't make much difference. Write it down ' John 
iii. 16.'" Delirium soon set in, and day and night his 
mutterings were "John iii. 16," and fragments of what 
he had so lately learned of the blessed message, " God 
so loved the world," adding what the Samaritan told 
him, "It will do you good," and it did good all over the 
hospital. Men and boys were asking, "What does it 
mean?" Those well enough to read were reading it, 
and not a few were asking to know more in tears. The 
attendants commenced reading it, and the physicians 
spoke of it in tenderness as strangely touching. 

" John iii. 16" got out into the minds of not a few 
in the city. Pastors read it in prayer-meetings, told 
the story and commented on it to their people ; it went 
into the Sabbath-schools, infants listened in wonder. 
The older ones heard of it with tearful eyes, in many a 
household this chapter was read in prayer, because they 
had heard of it in new emphasis from the tomeless suf- 
ferer. The sick and dying in their homes heard of it 
and when the Scriptures were read to them would ask 
for "John iii. 16." He recovered consciousness and 
was surprised that everybody, doctors and all, called 
him by his new name, and he asked how they knew 
it. Then and there they told him that he had talked 
of nothing else. Blessed employment ! May we ever 
have our souls so full of Christ that when our conscious- 
ness is gone we may talk of no other. 



152 

In the list of things picked up it may be interesting 
to give a few to our readers about London. It is a 
strange city ; only one of its kind ever has existed or 
ever will. The old city within the gates is substan- 
tial and often beautiful in its architectural designs. 
Beginning at the old landmark, the London Bridge, 
and the mounument erected to commemorate the 
plague and the fire that ended it, the buildings are 
simply and substantially grand. There is not much 
ornamentation, and what there is, is more for permanency 
than effect. These superstructures are mostly of stone, 
peculiar in the fact that lime and sand are combined 
in the stone itself, with considerable traces of iron. 
There is not much to burn in these buildings, wood be- 
ing used sparingly. The new buildings within the line 
of the walls are of the same substantial character, but 
with more ornamentation. One was observed in 
which Philadelphia bricks held an important relation 
to the whole. 

The streets have been widened wherever it was possi- 
ble. Old "Temple Bar" has disappeared in the effort, 
with many other landmarks of the past, and the streets 
are well-paved with either asphaltum blocks of stone or 
wood. The wood pavements, thrown away in our country 
where wood is cheap, are very much used in both Lon- 
don and Paris, and are spoken of as lasting well, but it 
is observable that this pavement is put down with great 
care, there is not to exceed a quarter of an inch be- 
tween the blocks. The new buildings outside of the 
old confines, especially being built for residences, are too 
often contemptible in both materials and structure. 
The bricks are a muddy yellow, very porous and as ugly 
as possible. The bonus houses of New York and Phila- 
delphia are superior in material, comfort and furnish- 



153 

ing. Most of these have no cornices, only a narrow 
blue stone coping laid upon the parapets about three 
inches thick. Mastic fronts are fashionable and dura- 
ble. It was a great surprise to know the cheapness of 
London suburban property. Two miles from the walls 
it is not as high in price as two miles from Chestnut 
street in Philadelphia, and not half so expensive as 
almost any good property on the Island in New York. 
Farming land about London, anywhere from ten to 
twenty miles out, is not worth more than good im- 
proved farms as near the centre of any of our large 
American cities. The impression is that at present 
farming and grazing lands are losing in value, and per- 
haps will continue until some measure of relief shall 
be found for the agricultural industry of England. 
One of the droll ideas in architecture, to the American, 
is the unending perspectives of chimney-pots. There is 
not, so far as could be discovered, a chimney in all 
London without one of these ugly terra-cotta contriv- 
ances. The palace and the rookery alike have the 
chimney surmounted by stove-pipes, straight and 
elbowed, with wind-wheels at the top, sometimes twenty 
feet long, without ornament to break the gauntness of 
the scene. Curtains, pantalettes, any thing that could 
relieve the disproportions, would be welcomed to any 
eye for terminal beauty. 

Sometimes there are fifty little terra-cotta tops, as we 
call them, two feet long, about big enough for an ordi- 
nary two-story house on a fabric six stories high. 
Sometimes there is a variety of stove-pipes and chim- 
ney-pots intermixed running up like crags on a moun- 
tain side, with no approach to any law of uniformity. If 
the denizens of the upper world should ever be doomed, 
for any little misdemeanors, to look down on Loudon, 



154 

and if they have improved, as we would expect, in aesthe- 
tics, they would look aloft at far-off stars as a relief, 
and beg to have any other form of punishment consis- 
tent with their position. The fact is the upper side of 
London was built without a thought of the possible 
return of any surveying parties from above. The Eng- 
lishman's ideas are truly naval. He loves masts, any 
thing that will remind him that Brittania rules the 
wave. Masts are his delight on the sea and in port, 
and masts even of bewildering chimmey-pots on his 
great metropolis. 

English modes of locomotion are surprisingly strange 
to American eyes. The coaches for ten persons 
on the railways are marvels of creative art. The 
English instinct is to keep as wide a chasm between 
the passengers and operatives as possible. The "driver," 
whom we call engineer, is put upon a platform, and for 
better security of the train he has nothing between 
him and the pole star to obstruct his vision. The 
Englishman is so nautical in his notions that he can- 
not get beyond the impression that the cars must be 
steered by the pole star, or that to keep the engineer 
wakeful, like Jacob, he must have a contract for 
counting the stars, so the moon blinks at him, the sun 
scorches, the rain soaks, the snow chills, the hail pelts 
and the frost nips ; but he endures all in the best in- 
terest of English locomotion. The guard (conductor) 
has a board ten inches Yvdde, along the side of the cars, 
on which he walks, holding to an iron rail screwed 
to the side. This is to keep him nimble and mindful 
of death, or to give him ready access to the passengers 
locked up in the carriages, if any of them should get into 
a fight, or attempt to frighten or injure helpless women. 
There is a bell which can be pulled on the outside, if 



155 

the little window can be gotten down. Then they can 
have the relief needed if they will halloo the guard 
pacing his board four hundred feet away, or they must 
wait until they get to the nest station. 

The apartments are air-tight and water-tight as well ; 
not a drop gets in to drink, and the only way to quench 
thirst is to go after it at the station, at the peril of being 
left. There is one small window in the door of each apart- 
ment about the size of a glass carriage- window, worked 
up and down by a leather strap in the same fashion. 
There is a glass window on each side of the door that 
might be worked the same way, and distribute a little 
more air to the panting passengers, but the sashes are 
nailed and puttied. The air-tight and water-tight com- 
partments are highly ornamented. They are divided 
up and down by matched planks of about fourth-rate 
common pine, grained to look like oak. The first-class, 
for the aristocracy and such other people as can buy 
the privilege of going into them, is usually cushioned 
with drab cloth. The cushions in the second-class car- 
riages are either of blue cloth or some kind of striped 
material, and the only difference between these two 
conditions of society and the great unwashed of the 
third class is that the latter have no cushions ; they 
can put their coat tails between them and the boards, 
or any other material that may be most available. 
Above the cushions on the back are embellishments 
that remind the homesick American that he cannot 
get beyond his own country. Advertisements are pasted 
above to while away his weary hours — one everywhere 
appearing of an old-time four-horse coach filled with 
passengers, inside and on top, rolling through clouds 
of dust, under which is written, "Ye weary pil- 
grims, wash your feet with Pear's soap, recommend- 



150 



ed highly by the late lamented Kev. 

." Near by is, " No refined gentleman or lady 



can afford to have a bad breath. It has produced 
many a disappointment and lifelong separation; use 
the fragrant S ." In the group of highly-col- 
ored decorations is another, "If you wish health 

and refreshment in life's duties take a cup of E 

Cocoa. Sold by grocers generally." On others are 
pictures of Buffalo Bill and his Amazons and wild In- 
dians ; wonderful exhibition of scenes in the Wild 
West, hair-raising adventures, patronized by Her 
Majesty, the Prince of Wales, and other royal heads, 
crowned aud uncrowned. 

Buffalo Bill is the most noted of our countrymen in 
these parts. He is petted by the nobility, is a central 
figure at the clubs, and is the " nobbiest statesman' ' 
we have — in the eyes of the English public. Letters 
are addressed to the " Hon. Buffalo Senator and In- 
dian Commissioner of America." Our distinguished 
citizen from the far West will hardly ever be contented 
in his own country again. Minister Phelps is said to 
have announced by a card from the Legation that the 
people whom he would present to the Queen must be 
people of distinction at home. This will be a bother- 
some question, for is not Mr. Barnum, the showman, 
the most distinguished man, in his profession, in the 
United States ? Is not Sullivan the most distinguished 
pugilist? Buffalo Bill, who is Honorable all over 
England — and Honorable means something here when 
it is backed by the further description of Senator, (of 
course, the difference between a State Senator in a 
North-western Territory and a United States Sena- 
tor at Washington is not put in parenthesis,) 
it will be interesting to see how Buffalo Bill, who 



157 

has been presented to the Queen, who visited his 
show, will manage it. If Hon. Buffalo Bill presents 
only the eminent in his country, Sitting Bull will have 
as good a chance as Mr. Phelps' marble-workers of 
Vermont, or eminent manufacturers in New England. 

Of course, we are only guessing at the estimate of 
the Legation. We know nothing personally; have 
asked no favors; have seen the good Queen as often as 
we desire, without getting on all fours at the Legation. 
It is better, if Americans desire favors of this kind, to 
get them through Englishmen, who will grant them, if 
one has any claim to them, without the humiliation im- 
posed by one's own countrymen. The Ministers and 
Legations who feel that it is their business to serve 
their own countrymen are exceptions to the gen- 
eral rule. The only favor we ever asked from any 
of them was for a permit to go into the House of 
Commons, in a reportorial capacity, but we were in- 
formed that only two passes a day could be obtained, 
and we would be booked two weeks hence. This would 
be of incalculable service to the press(?). We knew that 
this was only a pretence, and found that by applying 
to Englishmen or Irishmen we could get in every day. 
So if any of our readers have the ambition to be pre- 
sented to the Queen they must submit to have their 
greatness investigated by the American Legation, and 
if they would avoid disappointment and mortification 
they had better apply to the Hon. Buffalo Bill, who is 
as influential among the nobility, and far more noted 
before the British public. 

There is something to be admired in the English way 
of appreciation of abilities and success in every depart- 
ment of life's endeavor. Certain haberdashers of Lon- 
don have for a long time continued in certain charita- 



158 

ble works, and when the knighthoods were distributed 
the chairman of this estimable organization was knight- 
ed. He was not rich, or learned, or high-blooded, but 
faithful at his post, and as chairman represented a most 
reputable body of men who had been and were doing 
a commendable work. Fred Archer, the famous horse 
jockey who was killed a few months ago while riding 
in a race, was eminent of his kind. The English horse 
people, high and low, appreciated his talents in getting 
a nag over the ground. D'Israeli was not more mourn- 
ed for in his place than the dead jockey in his. His 
photographs are displayed in the most brilliant win- 
dows in both London and Paris ; and among the great 
ones, kings, queens, statesmen, generals, poets, heroes, 
artists of all the ages of European history, in a wax 
figure, true as life, is the jockey, in the gallery of 
Madam Taussaud. He will as surely have a monu- 
ment, when his time comes, as any man in England. 

There will be those of our readers who will desire to 
know what progress is being made in England in the 
work of temperance. To this we reply that their work 
in this direction cannot be compared with our own ; they 
do not work in our ways. The church is the great in- 
strument here, as it ought to be everywhere. Mere 
temperance sentiment, except as it is braced against 
the Everlasting Rock, does not amount to much any- 
where. Man is a social being, and it is nonsense to ex- 
pect him to give up his companions and his cups and 
go into a monastery, or become a social dummy for the 
sake of being temperate in the use of strong drinks. 
If you take him out of his bad companionships to save 
him you must straightway put him into better com- 
pany, and the church is the only institution that in- 
sures this. Archdeacon Wilberforce is both ably and 



159 

fairly representing the best temperance work in Eng- 
land. The English have not much idea of help from 
legislation. The government will not give up its reve- 
nues, and the people have not much idea of isolated 
work ; they carry irreligion, poverty, uncleanness, in- 
temperance all abreast in their labors, knowing that 
they are different growths of the same bitter roots. 
The drinking habits of the people are terrible. It is 
still too respectable, though there are multitudes who 
set their faces against it as a flint. We have no con- 
ception in our country, bad as it is, of its power. It 
has the unshaken roots here of ages. People do not 
know how to drink water ; it is tabooed in society. Ice 
is a luxury unknown to the vast multitudes, and what 
is more, they do not care for it. The majority drink 
nothing but preparations. Coffee and tea at meals, 
whiskies, brandies, malts, wines, lemonades — indeed, 
every conceivable decoction. Water has no friends. 
A man will confound the servants in an English 
hotel in asking for ice water, and all the guests by 
drinking it. It is not, their idea of the eternal fitness 
of things to drink water. We may pace the streets of 
London from one end to the other and will find no pro- 
vision for the thirst of the great toiling multitude, ex- 
cept the occasional hydrant and what is bought of the 
venders. Temperance hotels are places of torture. 
We tried two until we panted like a hart on the desert. 
They have no water but the slush of the hydrant in 
dog days. If one obtain enough of ice to make a cool 
glass he will be charged a sixpence (twelve cents) for 
it. If he drink their wretched lemon juice and soda it 
costs a sixpence a bottle. And this is not all. The 
short turns of charging are practised ; an extra cup of 
tea is the pretext of an extra sixpence in the bill. It 



160 

is an everlasting weariness, that even the general senti- 
ment of temperance illy repays, to stay in them, be- 
cause our people cannot live without water, as there is 
only about twenty-eight pounds of solid matter in an 
average American body, the rest being water; in other 
words, an American is an animated sponge, which must 
be filled, for in every ordinary sized body there are at 
least a hundred pounds of water. Tea, coffee, ginger- 
ale, lemonade and soda-water, at a sixpence for two- 
thirds of a glass, will not fill the aching void in mid- 
summer, and one's daily dilemma will be under- 
stood. 

He cannot fill the pores of his body with air, nor 
with coffee and tea alone. He cannot afford to fill 
them, and keep them full in July, on water at a six- 
pence a glass, and he cannot drink rum, beer or wine 
and be temperate. Besides his body rebels at lemonade 
and Belfast ginger ale. Who will have the temerity 
to venture to help him out of his predicament? Those 
who come after will be benefitted, perhaps, by the 
answer — it will come too late for us. But somebody is 
ready to say, how is it any better in the publican 
houses, as they are called here, or gin taverns, as we 
call them? Only in this, that they do keep ice- water, 
which can be procured, at least at meals, and therefore 
there is some choice between dying of thirst and drink- 
ing concoctions. 

There are other elements of demoralization in the 
rum trade in England of which Americans know noth- 
ing. The bar-tenders are almost universally women, 
who can be seen through every wide-open door, the 
more attractive the better. They laugh and talk to the 
young men and deal out death while radiant with smiles. 
The old are not beyond the seductions of women who 



161 

in every other respect except their wretched work may 
be of unexceptionable character — and more, may be 
members in good standing in reputable society or even 
in the church of God. This is one of the worst features 
in the whole business. But with all these awful forces 
at work practical temperance is gaining, has gained 
amazingly in the seventeen years that have intervened 
since our last visit. Men who drink are not so indif- 
ferent to public opinion. They are not so brutal in 
their ways. In more than three weeks we did not hear 
an oath on the streets of London. Practical methods 
to save men have increased an hundred fold. The 
cheap restaurants where weary men can get coffee, tea 
or temperance drinks, cold and hot, have increased, 
and are in sharp competition with the rum restaurants. 
We were in a place built and sustained by Lord Rad- 
stock for poor, homeless men to save them from the low 
tavern. The basement was, perhaps, one hundred by 
two hundred feet long. In it was a great pool of 
water, four or five feet deep, in which the filthy incomer 
must first wash himself, then comb his hair. At 
one end there was a great fire, six or eight feet long, 
and what the English call a "grill" — we call it a "grid- 
iron" — on which he can cook his own food, under the 
supervision of the superintendents of the place, or at 
the other end of the building he can find a comfortable 
meal cooked, with a good, big cup of coffee, for three 
or fourpence, six or eight cents of our money. Up- 
stairs, as far as the walls reach, are stalls and a little 
iron bedstead, with a comfortable bed, with a white 
spread, which he is expected to take off when he sleeps, 
and a long night shirt, a little table and light and a 
Bible, and all this for a sixpence; twelve cents of 
our money. So by tlese practical, sensible, humane 



162 

efforts England is doing a blessed work for temper- 
ance, cleanliness, order and godliness, for all these 
men must hear the reading of the Bible and prayers 
at night before they retire, and in the morning before 
they go out. There are also prayer and praise-meet- 
ings for them during the week, and preaching and 
other services on the Sabbath. So the Church is in 
sharp contest with Satan in all his efforts. 

There is one more phase of English character which 
seems surprising. They are passionately fond of the 
sensational ; no people are more easily carried away by 
it, and but for the constant moral bracings which they 
receive in education would be intoxicated by it. An 
Englishman has two intellectual motions, one toward 
steadiness in things, or conservatism, and the other to 
radicalism. He is so in politics. He loves exciting 
preaching, strange as it may seem, and to hear things 
out of the ordinary presentation. He is a great sermon 
reader, this is characteristic of the nation ; sermons are 
thrown off and sold by the millions. There are, no 
doubt, far more of Mr. Talmage's sold here than at 
home; indeed, the published sermons of almost every 
popular American preacher have an extensive sale to the 
multitude if they are bound in cheap form. It is a mar- 
vel to us, since we have observed the English sensational 
character, that more English of the lower and ignorant 
classes have not become Mormons. That they are not is 
no doubt because of polygamy. One of the last sensations 
in this direction is one of Mr. Spurgeon's theological 
students, who is reported to have gone to Philadelphia 
and become a follower of the woman there who claims 
to be the saviour of the world. Pretty hard on the 
Seminary of Mr. Spurgeon, but mistakes will hap- 
pen. 



JETSAM AND FLOTSAM. 

A FEW hours and the crossing of the Channel 
brings us into another land. France makes 
the impression of an extinguished Paradise. It is 
a strange fact that the .loveliest spots of earth should 
be the theatres of greatest conflicts. There is no 
country on which passion has raged so fiercely 
in hatreds, carnage and death as in this garden of 
natural and created delights. It is entered from Eng- 
land at Dieppe after a terrible shaking up on the 
Channel. Most people are heavy and stupid after the 
ordeal, and not disposed to be attracted by any thing, 
and especially not by this old, sleepy, played-out city, 
which can only boast of her dock and an old Cathe- 
dral. Yet beyond these confines nature soon begins 
to beckon away from sluggishness and to wake up the 
drowsy senses. 

The way lies immediately between two high bluffs 
of snowy white chalk, at least three hundred feet high. 
This chalk formation tells the story of the watery birth 
of England and the west of France. It is all one vast 
graveyard of life which has passed its day, little or long. 
One is overwhelmed as he thinks of hundreds of miles in 
surface, how deep it would be hard to tell, of former life, 
with its sensations and motions, where the last pang of 
the dying was the birth-pang of the life to succeed it — 
all, like ourselves, under the inexorable laws of dissolu- 
1G3 



161 

tion and reorganization. Both life and death have 
passed upon all. One reads the one hundred and 
fourth Psalm with new emphasis and feeling, "These 
wait all upon thee ; that thou mayest give them their 
meat in due season. Thou hidest thy face, they are 
troubled ; thou takest away their breath, they die, and 
return to their dust." 

This chalk formation appears in England at Rams- 
gate and Dover, and extends through this gap to the 
Valley of the Scie and almost to Paris. The coast- 
line of the ancient seas can be seen in the changing 
character of the rocks, in the boulders heaved up upon 
the coast surface. The thought of the myriads of life, 
of its different forms and intent, which once lay in the 
waters of these ancient seas, which died and dropped 
down, with their sarcophagi around them, to form this 
vast territory of chalk, is wearying. Over this are de- 
posit of boulders dwindling down to pebbles and red 
sand, and then the soil. The chalk gives a strange ap- 
pearance to the cuts through which the tracks are laid, 
and looks as if some tasteful hand had whitewashed 
them. It was a continuous interest to see so much tim- 
ber in this old country, great stretches on both sides 
reaching far over the hill-tops, of young trees thick and 
thrifty, bordering fields of grain and grass, now being 
mowed and harvested. The wagons were coming in 
groaning with great loads of fragrant new mown hay, 
or of golden sheaves laden with abundant grains of 
wheat. 

A Frenchman's thoughts are realized in sestheti- 
cal beauty wherever the work of his hands appears. 
No nation leaves its identity on its work as this one 
does. The world lives by thieving upon French crea- 
tions. They are copied everywhere by the artists 



165 

of the world, who are ever turning to France. As a 
farmer he is all that he is in art. His farm is the high- 
est expression of artistic taste. The farms of this valley- 
are unsurpassed for fertility and beauty. If a stream 
of water goes through the farm, and a Frenchman will 
have it if possible, he adorns its banks. No drift- 
wood or obstructions of any kind hinders its rip- 
pling course. The grass on its banks is shorn like a 
lawn. Flowers are planted, lilies droop gracefully over 
the water, his gooseberry and currant bushes are in 
clusters here. On both sides he plants trees, so that 
his brook runs through leafy avenues. If willows they 
are trimmed; if Lombardy poplars they are kept 
in graceful cones. His avenues have the same living 
definements to mark the way. The growths are of the 
general character of those in our country — maple, 
beech, silver-leafed poplars, ash, hawthorn, &c. 

Another remarkable fact about the French peasant 
is the constant unity preserved between utility and 
beauty. All the trees of his forest are trimmed to the 
top branches, and this constant trimming makes the 
limbs grow out all over the surface, increasing the num- 
ber of branches an hundred-fold. The trees stand up 
like sheared cedars in our lawns, fifty or sixty feet high. 
The limbs cut off yearly are used for fuel, so the peasant 
shears his forests as well as his sheep for their yearly fleece. 
He keeps his vines artistically, and those that climb over 
his brick chateau are trimmed and set both to ideas of 
beauty and utility. In this valley, not usual in Europe, 
are apple orchards, pruned after the same style, the 
dead and fruitless limbs being removed for fuel. The 
fences are hedges clipped in the prevailing style, and 
even these clippings are cut into little pieces and bound 
up like kindling wood in our grocery stores, and either 



166 

used or sold. The French know how to utilize all 
nature that she may yield to them her richest treas- 
ures. 

Along this Valley of the Scie are evidences of manu- 
facturing industries. The most graceful chimney- 
stacks that skill can execute adorn the many villages. 
They are round and built of a dark-red brick, pointed 
in snowy-white mortar, shafts seventy and a hundred or 
more feet, gradually tapering from the bottom to the 
top, at the crown or capital not appearing to be more 
than eighteen inches in diameter. Near Rouen the Val- 
ley broadens, giving wider range to its harvest beauties 
between its rugged chalk lines, and at this point the 
Dieppe and Havre lines unite and the River Seine 
first appears, as broad as the Susquehanna at Harris- 
burgh, and here the old historic city of Rouen rises into 
the range of vision. It was formerly the capital of 
Normandy, and is, through the earlier ages of English 
history, interwoven with most of its defeats and achieve- 
ments. The Romans were here, and more vestiges 
of their occupation are to be seen than in London. 
It was seized in the ninth century by Rollo and the 
Norsemen, or Normen, the ancestors of the people who 
conquered England. 

During the middle ages the contests between Eng- 
land and France on account of Normandy were fierce 
and bloody. These now peaceful and fruitful valleys 
were the highways of armies and their fearful desola- 
tions. The chronic contests were engendered by the fact 
that the kings of England were Dukes of Normandy, 
and Rouen for centuries was the scene of bloody frays 
between the two hostile nations, which only ceased 
when Rouen was restored to France in 1449. There 
is not much but age and historic spots and the beauty 



167 

of the surroundings to make it desirable. The Cathe- 
dral and church and that of St. Ouen are the objects 
of most historic and architectural interest; each of its 
own style is remarkable. The architecture of the 
Cathedral is of the twelfth century. It is four hun- 
dred and twenty-five feet long and superbly decorated 
in the stones, columns, capitals and friezes, &c. The 
Tomb of Richard Coeur de Leon is in the choir, while 
in the Chapel of the Virgin is the Tomb of Louis de 
Breze, Grand Seneschal of Normandy. The Place de 
la Pucelle, where Joan of Arc was burnt, would quicken 
interest to those fond of historic lore. 

Down the Seine the same continuation of wealth 
and beauty appears. In these peasant homes abide 
the accumulations of wealth for centuries, and these 
French farmers are the custodians of the riches of the 
nation. Their wealth passes over to their children, as 
thrifty and saving as their parents, for a French 
peasant never changes his style of living. It all 
goes into the general entail. These are the men 
who rise in their strength, in great national calamities, 
and loan their money to the government. They reason 
that if the government is destroyed they go with it, 
property and all, and their only hope is to keep it up, 
and it will repay them, and France has not deceived 
them. In 1869 we saw hundreds of these men in 
blouses, sleeping at night on the pavements around the 
Louvre and Palais Royal, and when we sought the 
cause were told, " These men have come up from the 
country, as they do every year, to loan their money to 
the Emperor." And they now do the same to the 
Republic. They are the men who liquidated, to a 
large extent, the German war indemnity. The Valley 
of the Seine widens and grows richer in all products ; 



1G3 

finer wheat never grew than in the little patches and 
long strips of these strangely bounded French estates. 
On the far-off chalk hills are vineyards now giving their 
luscious fruits to the sun for their final ripening. All 
along are villages of wooden houses painted white, or of 
white stone, or of thick bricks of yellowish-tint, pointed 
between with colored mortar. But the lines of rich 
forests bound the way all along. One of the most nota- 
ble is the historic St. Germain. The very suburbs of 
Paris remind one of the growths on the Jersey sands 
on the way to Cape May or Atlantic City. Paris is 
entered through cuts, walled with stone, surmounted by 
round copings. 



TEE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF FRANCE. 

IT is a perplexing problem as to what Divine pur- 
pose such a nation serves. It is a strangely com- 
bined organism of evil with dashes of good. There is 
no law of combination which will account for its strange 
history. The lawless frenzies of the people are as inex- 
plicable to themselves as to everybody else. The best 
of them will frankly say that they are afraid of them- 
selves, their periods of unreasoning destructiveness in 
which they give their own lives, destroy the fruit of their 
own industry, and in subverting what is good, what 
in cooler moments they would commend is unac- 
countable, except as incarnate diabolism for the time. 
With the zeal of the Pharisees they build monuments to 
their heroes, to virtue and religion, and in their infernal 
frenzies will tear them down and stamp on their very 
dust. An example of this was seen in one of these 



169 

popular uprisings, when the people sacked the Church 
of St. Denis, emptied the sarcophagi of the bones of a 
long line of kings, which had laid there in peace for 
centuries, and threw them into the common ditch. The 
leaden roof of the church was run into bullets and the 
building itself turned into shambles. Later it was le- 
stored, but the sarcophagi, emptied of their royal dust, 
stand in their ancient places, a mute reproach to the 
nation. The same spirit of frenzy demolished the Col- 
umn Vendome, which recorded the victories of the 
nation under Napoleon I. It was scarcely done before 
they were mourning the vandal act and were clamoring 
for its restoration. 

It is a serious question whether the French people, a 
strange combination of generosity and revenge, of 
heroisms for good and madness against it, of sacri- 
fices alike for the right and for the wrong, have 
not lived to do more monumental mischief than 
any other nation of like abilities and opportuni- 
ties upon the face of the globe. The query is whether 
it is not a nation in which good as a national force has 
never risen above blind impulse, to be formulated into 
the steadiness of law. But it is no part of our work to 
account for these race enigmas if we could ; we must rather 
turn to view the progress of events, to know which of the 
two forces of good and evil have for the future the 
best chance for supremacy. France is not a meteor 
among nations, though its orbit has been strangely ec- 
centric; it belongs to the family of nations. It has 
numerical strength, intellectual force and has ever a 
troublesome progressiveness, sometimes on right lines, 
while often its course has to be sought in injustice and 
giant wickedness. Its influence in both is great. Who- 
ever touches the nerves of organic France sends thrills 



170 

of pain through the greater body of Europe. This 
vitality, this far-reaching influence, with her suscepti- 
bilities to good impulses if rightly directed, lay claim on 
all Christian hearts, wealth, culture, and endeavor to 
help her into a better and more permanent future. The 
Christian world is feverish to know how the cause of 
Christ progresses in France, or if there is any hope of 
any thing better than Romanism gives which has 
been more debauched by France than France has been 
elevated by the centuries of her oppressive rule. If the 
day of better things has not dawned then " what of the 
night," is the cry of the sentinels upon the watch- 
towers of moral and religious progress. We all know 
that France needs the gospel, pure and simple. We all 
know what it did for her when she had it. 

But does France feel her need of it ? or is she not 
still beautifying her rags and crying, " I am rich and 
increased in goods, and have need of nothing?" Occa- 
sionally a half articulate message comes across the 
ocean, " France is showing life both at her heart and ex- 
tremities." Is it only the hopefulness of that wish which 
is father to the thought ? France has not yet reached 
in her revived life the domain of statistics ; her devil- 
ments have long been there. Besides there is a 
reluctance on the part of her people to help in 
the estimate. So the honest inquirer is put to his 
wits to find the true inwardness of things. The Pro- 
testant Church has no literature growing out of her 
new life, if she has any, and is not disposed to help 
herself into a more intelligible condition. Perhaps 
it is the result of distrustfulness nurtured through 
ages of disappointed expectations, or from a better 
disposition than rules in our own country she is not 
too ready to number the host, or perhaps they do 



171 

not relish the iuquisitiveness of other Christian nations; 
or are afraid of unkind criticisms. Whatever it may 
be, they are disposed to impute it to the difficul- 
ties of the interchange of thought from one language 
to another, and from the differences of the modes 
of operation. But what cannot be obtained through 
language often can be by intuition, and careful obser- 
vation and reasoning. Impressions, we know, are not 
facts, but they will bring us to the facts. 

There are several things to be considered, the 
first of which is that Paris is not France, and the 
second that Paris is not wholly bad, for there is 
good in it, fighting the bad with all its might ; and 
though the good might exclaim, "What are we among 
so many?'' yet when we know that numerical strength 
in sin is never real strength, and that the divine esti- 
mate is in the ratio of one to a thousand, the good 
need not be hopeless in the contest. Pans has wonder- 
fully improved since 1869. There . was a brutality at 
that time in the lower classes not to be seen now, nor 
do we believe that it exists to as great an extent ; the 
people have more liberty, but this is balanced by more 
responsibility. They well know that the present form 
of government which they love rests on them, and that 
the enemies of the country expect to gain ascendancy 
by their failures, and this idea of personal responsi- 
bility has made them more conservative and better 
behaved, on the principle that good military discipline 
in an army also indirectly improves the morals of the 
men. 

The Sabbath is better observed ; but few large com- 
mercial establishments are open, and multitudes of shops 
are closed. There is as much ostensible Sabbath keeping 
in the respectable portions of Paris as in Chicago. The 



272 

•people did not lose all by their defeat by Germany ; 
they began to inquire for the cause, and one is sur- 
prised to hear thoughtful men, not professing Chris- 
tians, say that "it was for our sins," and this is a far 
more universal impression among the thinking common 
people. Even the moderate Communists will say that 
it was the Nemesis of God against the Romish Church 
and the nation for being a party to the persecutions 
and massacres of the Huguenots, and it is a surprising 
fact that while the Communists curse the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, and cry, "Down with it!" multitudes of 
them have a kindly regard for the Christian religion 
as it is presented to them by the McAll missionaries 
and the sympathizing revived French Protestant 
Church. The words addressed to Mr. McAll, when here 
on a short vacation visit with his wife in August, 1871, 
to recruit his health, and which determined him to 
come, came from one of this supposed desperate class. 
" Sir, are you not a Christian minister ? If so, I have 
something of importance to say to you. You are at 
this moment in the very midst of a district inhabited 
by thousands and tens of thousands of us working- 
men. To a man we are done with the imposed religion 
— a religion of superstition and oppression. But if 
any one would come to teach us religion of another kind, 
a religion of ireedom and earnestness, many of us are 
ready to listen." 

As usual we hear of the deterioration of France 
from the few who remind us of buzzards on the West- 
ern prairies, stately birds with sleek plumage, graceful 
motions and especially red beaks, which sail over broad 
acres of spring flowers and pounce down on the only 
carcass to be found in the radius of miles. There are 
visitors of two weeks in Paris who can descant by the 



173 

hour of its moral nastiness, who could not tell you 
whether there was a prayer-meeting within its limits, 
though there is not a night in the year that the man 
who loves it and wishes good to his fellow-men could 
not find from twenty to fifty. People who only prog- 
nosticate on the side of the devil have his born instincts 
in a high state of cultivation. 

But, as we have said, Paris is not France, any more 
than the slums of New York represent the State. The 
problem as it stands to-day is, " What will the harvest 
be?" Seed has been sown and is yet to be reaped. 
What shall it be? Which of the two great men of 
their times, Calvin or Voltaire, great at the extremes 
of good and evil, shall morally represent France in 
the twentieth century? The teachings of Calvin and 
his co-reformers from Geneva inspired this nation first 
with the love of religious and civil freedom, and France, 
whenever an opportunity has appeared for the people 
to speak, has spoken passionately, destructively it may 
be, as a blind Samson groping in the darkness for free- 
dom, and has but too often pulled down the fabric of 
State on her own head. 

In the Museum of Madam Taussaud in South Ken- 
sington, London, the curious who may know something 
of the life and influence of Voltaire in the courts of 
France and Prussia will pause, amazed at the most re- 
pulsive-looking human "get up" to bo found within the 
range of mortal vision — the skinniest, darkest, mouldy 
blue complexion and pinched features, a disgusting pat- 
tern in anthropology. He must conclude that charac- 
ter and appearance are the progenitors of each other. 
The native ugliness of this hateful creature is repelling, 
and the form is diminutive in comparison with the moral 
carrion of his dissolving character. One involuntarily 



174 

asks, "Can these dry bones live?" and reverently may it 
be said, " Ah, Lord, thou knowest." Aye, we know but 
too well that his moral deformities have not been buried, 
and the question is will the Christian Church suffer his 
distorted principles to stalk their way again through 
France ? Shall it be said of him, as was said of the 
first martyr for the truth, "He being dead yet 
speaketh?" But the roots of the teachings of Calvin 
and the Reformers are deep, and like the willow and 
locust, the more they are cut or broken the more scions 
spring up out of their wounds. Each cut or bruise is 
an outlet for a new and more vigorous .life. These 
roots will never be exterminated from France. They 
all unconsciously live in French mental and political 
life. 

A few facts will give an idea of the time of this root- 
ing and the force of it. To resist extermination Pro- 
testants confederated under the name of Huguenots in 
1360 and in 1561. They alarmed Cardinal de St. 
Croix, who wrote to the Pope that the kingdom was 
already half Huguenot. But out of persecutions they 
multiplied; the bush burned but was not consumed. 
The massacre of St. Bartholomew was another desper- 
ate effort, and as we write we are in view of the spot 
where their king fired from the windows at his 
subjects, who had fought for France and who had only' 
been loyal to France. But sixteen years after there 
were found two thousand churches braving the fury of 
this Papal eruption from the pit. Seventeen years 
more passed when by the gracious intervention of the. 
Divine Head of his suffering body, and in reward for 
their faithfulness to the command, " Be thou faithful 
unto death," the government came to the conclusion that 
they whom they could not destroy had a right to live, 



175 

and the result was the Edict of Nantes in 1598. Their 
suppressed life bounded into surprising vigor, when 
Cardinal Richelieu in 1624 began the infernal policy 
of Rome, so often defeated, to exterminate this root 
indigenous to the soil of France. He pursued his 
purpose with Romish persistency, which culminated in 
the seige of La Rochelle in 1628, which, after the most 
heroic defence in history for fifteen months, in which 
one-half of the people died of hunger, was surrendered. 
Louis XIV., from whom the fiery breath of Rome came 
hot and sulphurous, fed by his own unspeakable moral 
depravities, and inspired by Madame de Maintenon, the 
strange granddaughter of the Protestant D'Aubigne, 
removed the dyke between them and death — the Edict 
of Nantes — ordered all their churches to be levelled to 
the ground, prohibited their worship of every kind, 
and exiled their pastors within fifteen days. 

And now all the powers of ingenious evil were again 
turned loose to dig up these native roots and cast them 
forth as plagues from the bosom of France. Schools 
were closed, horrible tortures of every kind inflicted, 
and the Universities of Saumur, Montauban, Nimes 
and Sedan destroyed. The army hunted them with 
wolfish instincts. But the bush, whose tap-root was 
too deep and invisible to be reached, still burned, 
although not consumed. In their dangers night, a dark- 
winged angel, came to their help. They worshipped 
under its wings in forests, in caves on mountains. They 
could trust nature. She was loyal to her own suffering 
children, and so tley whispered their prayers in her 
ears and wept on her bosom, and she never turned 
against them. Death finally called for this infernal 
old monarch, and the country had rest. 



But as if with prophetic intuition or ability to inter- 
pret the foreshado wings of these coming events, two weeks 
before, Antoine Court, the bravest man in France, con- 
vened the Protestant churches in the first Synod that 
had met in thirty five years. It numbered nine minis- 
ters, and there, in the depths of the forest, united the 
peeled and bleeding fragments in Consistories, Synods 
and Assemblies, under the name of "The Church in 
the Desert." In God's holy presence they vowed that 
this church should live and come up out of its desert 
conflict with the devil, as the Son of God, the great 
head of the church, had done, gaining the victory at 
each onset by the force of the eternal word. And as 
they had the same weapons they believed a like vic- 
tory was in store for them somewhere in the great 
future. Three hundred roofless churches were soon in 
the organization. Roofless theological seminaries were 
filled with students ready for labor or sacrifice. They 
lived in the utmost penury, and held their Synods in 
the guises of shepherds and in the blouses of peasants, 
and when surprised in the night, as chamois in the 
mountains, they leaped from crag to crag by the light 
of their burning houses. Fathers were dragged to the 
galleys for life, and mothers lay upon the dank stones 
of rayless dungeons. One is afraid to begin enumer- 
ating the thrilling incidents recorded of their martyr- 
dom lest he may not reach the end. Again a ray 
from a rifted cloud dawoied on them in 1787. Louis 
XVI. recognized the life of what could not be killed, 
and by an edict gave them the right to be born, mar- 
ried and buried according to law. It was a feeble flut- 
ter of long silenced conscience, but it was too late in 
waking to save the Papal tyranny from the harvest of 
their own sowing, or, to change the figure, the cup of 



177 

gall and the worm-wood winch they had held so faith- 
fully to Protestant lips through the centuries gone to 
sleep they had put to their own lips. Their accursed 
political policies were tried on themselves by those born 
out of their own loins and reared on the udders of the 
Papal wolf. It had used the sword and now it is to be 
put to the test of its own steel-edged charities. 

The nation which had lived to outrage the God of 
the Huguenots had to behold a shameless creature, in 
the form of a woman, carried through the streets of 
Paris in the character of the Goddess of Reason and In- 
fidelity. The legitimate child of an inhuman religion 
wrote over the cemeteries, "There is no God." And 
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes saw its ill-starred 
brood come home to roost in the bloody Revolution of 
1789. When Napoleon came into power he conceived 
a policy for the Protestant Church which reminds one 
of the queer shapes which a skilful manipulator can 
make in folding his pocket-handkerchief — now it is a 
rabbit, an old woman, or donkey, or a pocket-handker- 
chief as he chooses. Napoleon I. gave Protestantism 
the right to live, but reserved to himself the right to 
turn it into the shape of a rabbit or donkey or any 
thing else he chose. Persecution was better for the 
Church, for in his short reign it was comfortable, 
because it was comitose. In sleep is the time the 
Church catches Rationalism, which brings her into a 
condition in which her trouble is mostly in her head, 
though the heart may also be greatly affected. So 
what persecution could not destroy came near dying 
from suspended animation. This Rationalism did not 
shock men by its impiety as Radicalism, the feverish, 
frenzied state of this disease. It prayed, but it was to 
a God very far off, it was the twilight of what is now 



178 

called Agnosticism, in which it moved and had its 
being. 

But the only true deliverance that the Huguenot 
Church had from its first persecution came not in the 
form of an edict from the throne of France, but in 
the power of the Holy Ghost, with the seal of its 
validity in the parting promise of her risen King, 
"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end." 
This came in the form of a gracious revival of religion 
in the time of Louis XVIIL, a little more than sixty 
years ago. It came down from Normandy, and came 
there from England, from the Wesleyan movement, 
and went with mighty power through all the Huguenot 
churches. 

Then, as on another occasion in the early history of 
the church, men began to call upon the name of the 
Lord. The influence of this work was felt for fifty 
years. False and demoralizing remnants of Voltaire- 
ism, and others of his kind, were given up and their 
devotees turned to faith in Christ, and many of the 
parents of some of the ablest pastors in the Church to 
this day were converted from Romanism. The parents 
of the celebrated Dr. de Pressense (now Senator) were 
converted then. The lamented Dr. George Fisch was 
brought to Christ in this great work of the Spirit. 
Revivals and missions are as inseparable as life and 
breath, and as might be expected, mission work in 
France received a great impulse. Louis Phillippe, 
under the influence of one of these great Protestant 
statesmen whom God has ever kept near the throne for 
just such emergencies, the historian, Guizot, his Prime 
Minister, persuaded him to grant additional legal 
privileges for the Protestant schools and a limited 
right of propagandism. This was Christ's first ap- 



179 

parent victory over this kiugdoni of darkness, and 
his servants appreciated and made the best of it, and 
the first missionary society was organized in 1833, call- 
ed " Societe Evangelique," and soon came the special 
organization of the Reformed Churches of France, 
" Societe Centrale,' ' which had a budget of three hun- 
dred dollars a year, three missionaries and eight sta- 
tions. This is the first digit in the measure of the 
progress of the Church in the Desert, organized by the 
peerless loyalty and courage to the Great Head of the 
Church of Antoine Court in 1715. 

In the second Empire the Protestant Church was 
crippled not by persecution, but by imperial manipula- 
tion. Men were diverted from religion to politics ; the 
reign of Napoleon was feverish and uncertain. France 
never was cool enough for religious thought or pro- 
gress. The aim of the Empire was supremacy through 
the senses. No liberty to do right, but no restric- 
tion on wrong doing; so they let the Empire alone, 
and the Church lay impotent and chilled at heart, and 
Rationalism came as a most natural result. But 
God, in the national disasters that ensued, put his hand 
upon the paralytic, with the command to " Rise up 
and walk," and the Church has not only been on her 
feet, but making progress ever since. The humiliations 
of France have done her good ; they brought her to 
her conscience, they shook the atheism out of her and 
showed her that her weakness was moral. They re- 
called to her the long slumberiug wrongs she had per- 
petrated, and as one of her greatest men said regard- 
ing the late war, " We fought Germany without con- 
viction and without hope. We did not believe that 
there was sufficient cause for the war, and this had the 
weakening influence expressed by the patriarch when 



180 

he said, 'That which I had feared hath come upon 
me.'" In their humiliation new life was born; they 
felt that France must build again from the foun- 
dations. The ablest general left to them said in the 
Chambers, " The fall of France is in the homelessness 
of France." He told them that she would never re- 
cover until an army was raised in the home, in the 
sanctities of marriage ties, where patriotism alone is 
born and lives. 

In these daik hours they began to gather up the 
fragments, so it was found that in the third Republic, 
under the administration of Thiers, who . granted the 
Huguenot churches their first official Synod since 1661, 
there were more than seven hundred churches and nine 
hundred thousand Protestants in a population of less 
than thirty-seven millions, beside losing three hundred 
thousand in the detachment of Alsace from France in 
her translation to Germany. There was an inventory 
of doctrinal beliefs taken, in which great and fatal 
divergence appeared ; but withal, two-thirds were hold- 
ing firmly to the discipline and faith of the Reformed 
Church ; and this anomalous condition appeared that, 
while the State made them one, a separation was clearly 
inevitable. As they are not at one the State will not 
call the Synod, but the evangelical party are not 
grieved over this, for they have formed a spiritual 
Synod free, but unofficial, in which Christ Jesus is the 
Supreme Head. Is it not wonderful that it has cost 
all this bloodshedding and washing through centuries 
for the Church in the Desert to reach Christ and his 
crown rights as Lord over his own spiritual common- 
wealth? 

"We have given, briefly as possible, these outline facts to 
help our readers to judge whether the martyr Church of 



101 

France, with its heritage of heroisms and histories, ought 
to live, and whether there will be more hope in the twen- 
tieth century for the doctrines of Calvin than for those of 
Voltaire. And now, having heard the voice of the Church 
declaring in the wilderness her right and purpose to 
live, we will give some of the evidences of her life and 
progress. 

At the beginning let us give a few explanatory facts. It 
is but truthful to say that all the Protestants of France 
are not vital Christians. They are put in the same cate- 
gory with all State Churches — i e., confirmation makes 
membership. But while this is true, a vast majority 
would be by us regarded in their life-fruits as Chris- 
tians. Political elements enter into all church life — 
more than it does with us, perhaps not more than 
in England. The Republic is far more favorable to 
the spreading of Protestantism than was the Empire, 
for the latter was a government of class, but this is the 
government of the people, the imperishable ideal, with- 
out which the multitudes of France would not be 
French. One influence on the side of evangelization 
is the fact that the Roman Catholic Church is known 
everywhere to be against the government of the people. 
The Romanists here are reactionists, and understood to 
be even hostile to the Republic. It is this conviction 
that is now stripping them of their power, and in ten 
years, if not sooner, if the Republic lasts, it will end 
in disestablishment, and then it will be poorer than the 
French Protestant Church, which has learned to take 
care of itself in its sore straits, while the other, a great 
overgrown baby, will have to take its first lessons in 
being weaned from the civil public breast on which it 
was born, and from which it has drawn its life. The 
following well authenticated incident shows the readi- 



182 

ness of the people to leave it. There was a shipwreck 
on the coast of Normandy. Many of the bodies of the 
crew and passengers picked up were found, on exami- 
nation, to be both Catholics and Protestants, and on 
the body of one of the sailors was found a New Testa- 
ment. The people of the province called a Protestant 
minister to officiate at his burial, but the priests refused 
to have any thing to do with the service, or to let him 
be buried in consecrated ground. Immediately the 
whole community turned over and would have nothing 
more to do with the Church of their birth. Of course, 
these peoples could not be reckoned as Protestants, 
though many of them may have been Christians. They 
had every thing to learn, but were ready to be taught, 
which is the first condition to genuine discipleship. 

We have sought information from all sources ; from 
moderate, or nominal, Catholics as to their estimate of 
the Protestant labors for good. The secular news- 
papers are now chronicling their movements, something 
unknown in the past. They speak in high commenda- 
tion of their works of charity. An example of this was 
a Deputy of the Northern Department of France, 
whose name we know, but forbear from prudence to 
give. He had presided over a Protestant meeting inci- 
dent to inaugurating evangelical work in his district. 
He was not a Protestant, had been born and reared a 
Catholic; but he was a moderate Republican, a repre- 
sentative of the people, and had a general interest in 
their freedom and prosperity. When the time for his 
re-election came this fact of his presiding over a Protest- 
ant meeting was placarded, and the priests used it, and 
every possible prejudice was stirred up for his defeat. 
But the people said, "Down with such intolerance," 
and elected him by an overwhelming majority. These 



181 

events show the drift of the public mind and its sym- 
pathies. Ten years ago no Protestant would have 
dared to open his mouth publicly on the subject in 
that district, now it has a flourishing mission. The peo- 
ple will come out and will hear whether they believe 
or not. They will even listen if they blaspheme, and 
many a blasphemer has been won when he came to un- 
derstand the gospel. 

In one of the McAll meetings, presided over by Dr. 
• Newell, formerly a pastor in New York city and later 
of the First church of Newburyport, Mass., while a 
Frenchman was speaking, a big man rose in the audi- 
ence with clinched fists to beat the life out of the 
speaker, because he urged the claims of the Lord Jesus 
Christ on the consciences of men. Dr. Newell, fearing 
a conflict, went down into the audience and laid his 
hand gently on his shoulder and explained the religion 
of Christ a little, when the man said, " You are Ameri- 
can, and America has always been the friend of the 
French ; you may say what you please, but I won't 
suffer a Frenchman to talk that way about our obliga- 
tions to Jesus Christ." That man promised to come 
back, and has been a tolerably regular attendant on 
the services ever since. When the Salle or Hall Balti- 
more, meant for the higher conditioned classes of 
Frenchmen, was opened, fifty of the worst Communists 
appointed it as a rendezvous upon a certain night. 
But the police had a different idea of this work. They 
had seen the miseries it had relieved and the good it 
was ever ready to do, and without any orders from 
superiors agreed that fifty of them, off duty, in citizens' 
clothes would go and distribute themselves through the 
audience. But the Communists recognized them and 
either conducted themselves well during the service or 



184 

went quietly away. Some of them were placated and 
some won over to the cause. 

Hand-shaking is a soul-saving power in France, 
strange as it may seem. The French are a people 
most impressible by kindness, as they are about the 
kindest people on the globe. They recognize class dis- 
tinction, and as it was a coveted honor to kiss the hand 
of a superior or a benefactor, they have this same 
feeling towards those who have come to help them. 
This goes out especially to Americans, who are mak- 
ing real sacrifices for them and their children. No 
matter whether they believe the message offered or 
not their gratitude is aroused. The first thing that 
awoke our interest was a scene at the meeting at 
Rue Royal, conducted by Dr. Newell. His wife's pres- 
ence at the door welcoming the people, saying, "Bon 
Soir" to each worshipper and giving each a hymn-book 
and conducting them to seats, was the best comment we 
have ever seen on the text, " For the love of Christ con- 
straineth me.' ' To see this elegant, well-bred woman, 
of the best associations of New York city, doing a sex- 
ton's work, taking the dirty hands of the lowest, the 
Magdalene even in her wickedness, and the best of 
Paris as well, and giving to each a gracious welcome in 
the name of Him who hath said, " Come unto me, ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," 
was inspiring. It brought the tears as we thought how 
many in our own country might be reached by the love 
of those who have had all the refinements of station 
and education if the soul-saving spirit of Jesus would 
lay hold on their hearts. In speaking with her about 
it she said, " This is the way we get our hold on the 
people. It is at first personal. They think it an honor 
bestowed on them and reciprocate it by their apprecia- 



185 

tion of us, and coming with no better motives, at the 
first, they are brought to Christ.' ' These English-speak- 
iug people could never turn French heads by their 
French, which must, in many cases, sound absurdly 
enough to them. Even Moffatt records that in his first 
efforts to teach the naked savages when laboring for 
words they would prompt him, and then shout with 
laughter and roll over convulsed at the absurdities he 
was getting off to them. 

But this people never smile at any mistake, and 
one who speaks the French fluently, through the use 
of years, said, " I have seen a congregation sit in tears 
listening to the absurdest French ever heard from a 
Scotchman. But that Scotchman's heart was on fire 
with divine love, and it was this that absorbed them. 
They were catching the Spirit of Christ and were in- 
terpreting it for themselves" The work of evangeliza- 
tion is as leaven unto the hearts of the people, bringing 
them to a consciousness of their sins. Of course, the 
teachers know but little of the people ; many are pres- 
ent at every meeting whom they have never seen be- 
fore at the McAll Missions. A man stands on the 
street by the door and invites those passing by to hear; 
he gives them first a card and then an invitation, and 
often takes them by the hand. They come in at first 
as timidly and distrustfully as if a trap were set for 
them, and sometimes they go out almost immediately, 
the women being most suspicious and most intensely 
bitter against every thing not Roman Catholic. But 
more stay, some get interested immediately, and this 
interest is seen in the intensity with which they hear. 
Sometimes forgetting themselves they cry, " Bien, 
Men," "good, good." One can sometimes scarcely con- 
trol his facial muscles as he observes their motions 



186 

about the singing. The popular gospel hymns are 
used, the greatest blessing in the world for interesting 
careless men and women. But the tunes are altogether 
different from those the French have been taught to 
sing, which have been a kind of pitiful hum-drum in 
the style of a chant. 

These tunes, of such wide compass of voice and quick 
variations, are too much for them; although passion- 
ately fond of them and as anxious to learn them their 
voices will, however, break off at a tangent and they 
will laugh outright at their own mistakes. Soon they will 
sober and try it again, until the music becomes fairly 
good. It is hearty, which is better. The stranger 
looking upon them will ask, " Cui Bono?" But the 
answers come often like the workings of God, which 
are in mysterious ways. One poor crippled woman 
came to one of the lady missionaries and said that she 
sold thread and needles for a living, but she was not 
going to do it any more on Sunday. She was asked 
why she was going to make the change, for nobody, 
had known how she had made her living, and not a 
word had been said directly to her about Sabbath- 
breaking. She said she had found out in the Bible 
that it was wrong and she would do it no more. 

The following facts about the laws for regulation 
of marriage in France will explain some other things 
perplexing to the foreigner, and the cause of much that 
is universally condemned. It is almost impossible to 
get a government license to be married. It costs as 
much time and money as to get out title for real estate 
in Philadelphia under the old regime, for at present, 
through the companies, there is a little more despatch. 
A young man, belonging to the Protestant Church, with 
means sufficient, has been trying four months for a 



187 

license and has not yet succeeded. The history of the 
family is traced for generations, and any defect is the 
cause of a quibble or delay ; hence for poor people it is 
useless ever to think of being legally married. So they 
live together and raise families under this anomalous 
arrangement, and this tells much of the sad story of 
the infidelities in the French married relations. The 
fact is the Romish Church has environed France for 
the devil's sovereignity. But the silent effect of the 
McAll Mission work may be seen in an instance simi- 
lar to others which have more than once occurred. 
A man and woman who had been coming to the mis- 
sion services for a considerable time had lived together 
in this anomalous relation, and three children had been 
born to them. They had not thought that there was 
harm in it, nobody had told them so, and the probability 
is if they had they would have justified themselves in 
their inability to get a license, or that everybody else of 
their class did so, but they had been searching the 
Scriptures quietly for themselves, and as the result the 
woman came to see Dr. Newell of the" Mission, and said 
that she and her husband were satisfied that it was 
wicked, and they wanted him to marry them, not 
according to the civil law, for this was impossible, but 
according to the law of God. 

The fact is indubitable that France is now in a wonder- 
fully receptive mood. It is empty and must be filled, 
and the great question to the Christian Church of the 
world is, Who will occupy that void ? God has opened 
new avenues on all sides. It is as if the windows and 
doors of all French dwellings were suddenly thrown 
open to the light. The foundations of the long, stony 
past are crumbling; the political power of Rome is 
broken, and no spiritual foundations or elevations are 



188 



being reared in its stead. The people are worn out 
with its oppressions. It reminds us of a description of 
idolatry in Hindostan given by the late lamented Dr. 
Henry R. Wilson, who said that when he first opened 
his school in India, when the boys passed a brown- 
stone idol they would prostrate themselves. "But 
now," said he, "after they have been with us and 
learned better they whet their knives on his feet." 

This is what a large part of the people in France are 
doing with this worn-out political machine. Let it be 
understood once for all in this connection that we are 
passing no strictures on the soul-saving work of the 
Church of Rome in France or anywhere else. We 
say God speed this ancient Church in all that is ac- 
cording to his Word ; and that God has an elect people 
in its bosom peculiarly his own neither truth or charity 
would permit us to doubt. But it is against the church 
as a political force, which has been truckling to every 
oppressor, or coercing those that would have been just 
but for this political trickstering or intimidation which 
is making her decrepit in her true work, and the object 
of hatred by those born within her own pale. In her 
political decrepitude the missionaries of the cross have 
freedom, and the people a~"Q rejoicing in it, by many 
if for no other reason as an occasion to show their 
hostility. Here they rage at the presence of the gospel 
power, as everywhere In heathendom, and the people 
imagine a vain thing, and the rulers take counsel 
together against the Lord and His anointed. 

The anti-clerical feeling is at its height, but at the 
same time there is an awakened and deepening sense 
of need on the part of a large and increasing class of 
thoughtful men. We have gained much valuable 
knowledge on this subject from Dr. Hunter, formerly 



189 

pastor of one of the Presbyterian churches in New 
York, who came here, as we have done, ia nobody's in- 
terest or employ, as an outsider to estimate the value 
of the work for himself and the church. He speaks 
the French language with great fluency and has been 
here at intervals for years. From him we gain the 
substance of the following statements of the result of 
careful personal observation : 

These changes are becoming daily more apparent, 
as evinced in the character of the most learned and 
active French thought, expressed at the Conferences 
held at the Boulevard Capucines and the Anti- Atheistic 
League, which numbers many theoretical writers and 
philosophers, members of the Institute of France, Sen- 
ators and Deputies, &c, in which the tone has percep- 
tibly changed, if not toward evangelism, at least toward 
Theism. Atheism as a belief among the most learned 
and influential is going under. The wide-spread apathy 
is balanced by a remarkable lay co-operation, still kept 
in subjection to the idea of authority formulated in 
methods and church life. The more the Reformed 
State church of France is studied the more evident is 
the fact of a positive, deep, increasingly effective awak- 
ening of true evangelical zeal and spiritual life. There 
is greater fervor and spirituality in preaching, greater 
effort to increase the number and spiritual qualifica- 
tions of those entering the ministry. The largest 
number of theological students ever known is now 
at Montauban, and not only here, but a fair increase 
is found in all the seminaries, including those of 
Switzerland. The majority of the Consistories which 
were a few years ago sceptical have become evangelical. 
The Sunday-school work, which is of only a few years 
birth, is growing and rooting in the native soil, so that 



190 

it will soon be a national institution in the estimates 
of Frenchmen. There are but two directions for here- 
tics in the Reformed Church — they go into the rank of 
radicalism, and from this into government civil service 
as clerks, librarians, &c, leaving the active duties of 
the ministry altogether, or go back to •evangelicalism, 
and to this goal many have come. 

Evidences of the Spirit's regeneration are sought for 
as perhaps never before, certainly not in ages. Knowl- 
edge of the Catechism is not the test of discipleship with 
Christ which will now satisfy and give admission to 
the Lord's Supper. This will, of course, change not 
only the spiritual outlook of the Church, but her 
mode of being into doing. Hence efforts are being 
made to establish and foster Young Men's Chris- 
tian Associations within the churches, also prayer- 
meetings, which will seem strange to our readers, but it 
is a fact that the church prayer-meeting is a new-comer 
here, and has only made its way into a few churches. 
The reason is that the men to pray have yet to be 
raised up and inspired. Where they have been intro- 
duced the women have often to carry the heavy end 
of the burden in prayer. Let this be said to women's 
everlasting honor, another testimony that she keeps 
nearer the cross than man. 

The last Synod (unofficial) meeting, held but a 
short time since, was a wonder to both its members 
and friends in the prayers made in the direction of 
greater spiritual life. The institution of the Deacon- 
esses is one of the active instrumentalities and worthy 
of imitation. Everywhere their labors are of a chari- 
table kind, ever acceptable, even to the foes of relig- 
ion ; in the list of good works carried on by the several 
charitable instrumentalities are visits to hospitals 



191 

and prisons, and labors among coachmen, and what is 
more important than we in America have ever seriously 
considered, counteracting at the railway stations the 
most desperate traffic in human virtue. The rum 
trade in our own country and England has its roots in 
the abominable revenues of state, municipal and federal 
and imperial governments. In France under the de- 
baucheries of her history the municipal governments 
gather vile revenues from the destruction of female 
virtue, and in this city of Paris 50,000 of these de- 
stroyed and destroyers carry on their work by license. 
Society has not power to free itself from this legalized 
curse. But godly women, supported by Christian 
men, meet these soul-destroying agents and often rescue 
the innocents from the paws of these beastly creatures. 
Foremost in evangelical work in the Protestant Church 
of France is the Societe Centrale Protestante d' Evan- 
gelization. It is direct church work, which employs 
missionaries, establishes preaching stations which de- 
velop into churches, and organizes Protestant schools. 
It is fifty years old and has made slow but sure progress, 
but now under the Eepublic it is making rapid strides to 
overtake its lost opportunities, and ought not to appeal 
to our country for help in vain. It was born in an 
ardent desire to give France the gospel, to gather 
together Christ's scattered sheep, to house them in 
his churches. There are about four hundred laborers 
and sixty schools, and it has organized two preparatory 
theological schools with an attendance of about seventy 
in each. 

There is another organization which has interested a 
few of our people, and ought to reach more. First, be- 
cause of its leader, who was an eminent lawyer who 
turned away from his profession to serve his Divine 



192 

Master for his countrymen, Eugene Reveillaud, who, 
with his colleagues, goes up and down France calling on 
the people to repent and attain better lives. It is the 
voice largely of the laity to the laity to " repent, for 
the kingdom of God is at hand." It is the flying artil- 
lery which can limber up and be in action where a 
place can be found to stand — public halls, turner halls, 
coffee-houses, ball-rooms, market-places, park-gates or 
the streets. It has four agents who have visited one 
hundred and fifty stations during this last year. Its 
intrepid leader edits a sprightly and aggressive paper, 
filled with news both of the churches and their work, 
with discussions of matters political as they are related 
to religion. It is called Le Signal. 

There are in the service of religion a multitude of 
educational institutions, Bible and Tract Societies, re- 
ligious newspapers and periodicals; including reviews 
there are over one hundred different periodicals and 
newspapers. The contributions to benevolence amount 
to over one million of francs this year, five hundred 
thousand to the foreign work. And when the money 
for scholarships in the theological schools was with- 
drawn by the government, and the support of the can- 
didates for the ministry was first thrown upon the 
churches, many were in trepidation. The sum of 
twenty -five thousand francs was the utmost expected, but 
instead the churches gave seventy-fivo thousand. In 
the estimate of the ministerial force in France the work 
of the Swiss seminaries must not be lost sight of. Neuf- 
chatel, Lausanne, Geneva and Balse deserve to have 
honorable mention. The efficient numbers of workers 
and works may be briefly stated. The State Protestant 
Church of France consists of two bodies. The Reformed 
Church eight hundred and nineteen ministers, the Augs- 



193 

burg Confession one hundred and three. In Alsace 
and Lorraine (now German) there are of the Reformed 
Church thirty-six ; of the Church of the Augsburg Con- 
fession two hundred and twenty-four ; the Methodists 
have forty ; Baptists fourteen ; the Free Church (Con- 
gregationalist) thirty-five ; the Evangelical Secretary of 
Geneva has on French territory eleven ministers; the 
Department of Aix seven ministers ; Independents two ; 
making the whole clerical force one thousand two hun- 
dred and eighty-one. 

It will be observed, first, that foreign churches have 
no strength. The Methodists have forty and the Bap- 
tists fourteen, the Congregationalists thirty-five, mak- 
ing in all eighty-nine, and this is to us conclusive that 
the work done from beyond France must be engrafted 
on the indigenous root, which has survived all that 
could destroy every thing not of divine planting. In 
our judgment France must be evangelized by the his- 
toric martyr church in it. All else will be exotics, which 
will require constant nursing and will be always feeble. 
All strength ought to be combined in the church 
known to the French. Whether the French believe in it 
or not, it is better that it should be known, even to be 
hated, than to toil its way into the consciousness of the 
people. We should as quickly and positively say the 
same to the Presbyterian Church of either England or 
America if it had a few struggling congregations. 
Turn them over to the people who understand the mul- 
titudes with whom they work, and know how to do it 
better, with more possibilities of success, with the 
martyr seed already sown, the promise of which is to 
the surviving remnant, who can do it more wisely and 
cheaply than all others. 



194 



A moment's reflection will show that this is not a super- 
ficial conclusion. In 1820, according to the statement 
of Dr. Bersier, Paris had but one church, now it has 
sixty. If we consider the political influence of the Pro- 
testant Church, which is a factor in all religious move- 
ments whether they choose or not, in the First Cham- 
bers of the Republic of seven hundred members 
seventy-five were Protestants, and now there are five 
French Cabinet Ministers Protestants, and none re- 
garded abler or safer in the Republic. The conditions 
all around are favorable, but this does not mean that 
France is practically Christian. Never were forces 
hostile to good more active, never were men and 
women more wholly given to idolatry or to an indifference 
as bad as Atheism. Paris is a deep, stagnant pool, and 
the good done seems as yet to " surface" over its abysses 
as the scum on an inland pond. But there is fertile 
ground yielding the best products, and with the good 
that lives in Paris the evil can be conquered. This 
brings us to survey, in its true relations, the most re- 
markable religious work of the century, known as the 
McAll Mission work. 

We may be confronted, at once, with our statement 
that foreign institutions cannot accomplish much in 
France, or indeed permanently in any other country. 
The work of foreigners in heathen lands is practically 
over when they have raised up and educated native 
workers. But the McAll work has never been inde- 
pendent of the churches and pastors of Paris. The self- 
negation of this wonderful Christian man, who is the 
founder and head, is monumental. It would have been 
the easiest thing in the world to have started a church 
bearing his name or any other name. He might have 
chosen any form of government he might prefer. But 



195 

instead he has wrought in the greatest harmony with 
the French pastors. He has advised with them, has 
had their constant help. Some of the most eminent 
preaching in these stations, two, three and sometimes 
four times a week, is by men of world-wide reputation, 
such as Dr., now Senator, de Pressense, Pasteurs Ber- 
sier, Monod, Eecolin, Dhombres, Hollard and others. 
There is but one opinion about this work in Paris, nay 
in all France, which is enthusiastic and profoundly 
trustful. It is the auxiliary of the French Protestant 
churches, and at this moment we are told that there are 
a hundred applications for these helpers, for the 
churches throughout France, by their pastors and con- 
sistories. 

The work, by its own momentum of grace, widens 
and deepens, and the cry, not only in France, but far 
beyond it, is to them, " Come over and help us." One 
of its most blessed fruits is in imparting a knowledge 
to the pastors of France of better methods of work. In 
the long inactivity of the church, when it was politi- 
cally fettered, the tendency was to take the life and 
aggressive activity out of it and its pastors. Many had 
fallen into a hum-drum Conservatism, little less lively 
than the dead march. Then courage, which now 
works through their marvellous aggressiveness, was 
all repressed by the tyranny which, through ages, 
became the law of being. The pastors come up from 
all over France, and catch the spirit and learn its 
methods, and carry them home not in vain, as the 
wonderful revivals throughout France during the last 
two years have shown. To the ministry of France it 
has been better in its teaching how to work than a half 
dozen ordinary seminaries. The French clergy ap- 
preciate it, pray for it, French Protestants contributed 



196 

to it over five thousand francs, a great sum considering 
their condition and the demands upon their poverty. 
They commend it, as well they might, and God forbid 
that they should ever become so blind as not to feel 
that it is the pulsation of their own church heart. For 
they must never be separated. It would imperil, to our 
judgment, the hopes of the salvation of France. But 
it may be asked what are the results, not general, but 
organized ; we ever search after the organic fruits of the 
gracious sunlight. It is not enough to know that it 
shines, we must know that it is to definite results. The 
French Protestant churches are receiving converted 
souls which they could never have reached. All the 
pastors who have wrought in this work have had acces- 
sions from it, pastors Bersier, Monod, de Pressense, 
&c, and so has it been with the Methodist, Congrega- 
tional and Baptist Churches. 

It is the mill and hopper into which the grists of the 
churches run. They can disarm church prej udices, hatred 
to the Romish Church is transferred to every thing of the 
name. The masses do not know the purposes and his- 
tory of French Protestantism, and think it is but an- 
other form of what they blame with all their mis- 
haps. Without the name " church' ' Mr. Mc All and his 
helpers have carried out its purposes and aims ; it is a 
life-saving service, without the denominational flag at 
the prow. The banner of the cross has been there all 
the time. A remarkable instance of this church preju- 
dice was related to us, which will explain our meaning. 
There had been started a mission in a prominent place 
with every prospect of success, it had good workers and 
outfitting, but it dwindled all the time. A meeting was 
called to deliberate and devise on its condition, in which 
it was found that every thing had been done that had 



197 

given success in all the other missions. At last Mr. 
McAll, in his far-sightedness, said, "You had better 
carry out that old pulpit (which somebody had given 
them) at the end of the hall and get a stand in its 
stead." This was done, and at first the number in- 
creased to eighty, and it has been one of the most pros- 
perous ever since. Notwithstanding this present hos- 
tility of the people the McAll Mission must come 
ultimately into closer relation with the churches which 
are built upon the very structure of the ages. 

France must save France. The native Protestant 
churches realize this and ought to be bearers of the ark 
of God, for the " Church of the Desert,' ' in its ordained 
progress out of the close of this suffering century into 
the glory of the next. And if the McAll Missions go 
out of this auxiliary relation they will not be worth 
either prayers or alms in the future hopes of the salva- 
tion of France. 

We must not overlook the fact that organized 
churches are the exponents, nay more, the heart-throbs 
of all operative and co-operative charities which have 
in them any possibilities of success. Neither France 
nor the world, of which it is a fragment, will ever be con- 
verted except as all agencies work finally into the divinely 
appointed channel, i. <s., the church of Christ. To invite 
men to leave the Roman Catholic Church and go into 
the crazy crafts of individual voluntaryism is like run- 
ning away from a lion to meet a bear. God be praised ! 
No such fear, at present, darkens the skies, but no one 
knows what might become of this now glorious estate 
at the death of the testator. We have patiently ex- 
amined all the documents upon which we could lay our 
hands. We have interviewed until the brethren seemed 
weary. We have gone to the places of work and wor- 



198 

ship and have, in the heat of summer, found services 
well attended every uight in the week and from three 
to five services of one kind or other on the Sabbath. 
We have examined all that could be seen with the 
severest criticism, and are convinced of the great- 
ness and goodness of this McAll auxiliary work, and 
declare that it has not been exaggerated before our 
people. No better service calls for either money or 
workers. We do not believe that we shall find a more 
hopeful missionary field, in all our journey ings, than 
France. 

To the Christian and philanthropic people of our 
country we will not give these estimates of our con- 
victions and judgments unsupported, but fortify each 
statement with facts. Here in brief are the steps and 
history of its progress : 

"What a joy to Mr. and Mrs. McAll. They had 
said to themselves, ' It is worth while to fail in such a 
cause.' But they were not to fail. How little did they 
then dream of the great things to which their Lord had 
called them ! One mistake they had made — the little 
room was all too small for them. A large ball-room, 
112 Rue de Belleville, was leased. More chairs were 
bought, and the people were invited to enter. This 
large room was at once crowded. The work broadened 
and deepened. Schools for children were held on Sun- 
days and Thursdays. The children were delighted with 
the new sweet stories of the Bible and with the bright 
songs. Mothers' meetings followed, Bible Classes for 
young people, visitation from house to house, distribu- 
tion of tracts, gospels, &c. 

" Then came the call to open a second station ; then 
a third and a fourth. These calls were obeyed in the 
same trusting spirit as was the first, and with the same 



199 

divine blessing. Once more the Lord bids bis servants 
' Go forward ;' this time, not to another quarter of Paris, 
but to other cities of France. Anxiously they listened 
to learn if this were indeed the voice of God. The 
moment there was no mistaking, they gladly obeyed. 
To Lyons, to Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, and to 
many another city of France, the McAll Mission went, 
even to Corsica, Algeria and Tunis. And to-day the 
little room at Belleville has become a hundred stations, 
in which last year were held over sixteen thousand ser- 
vices, attended by nearly one million of souls. We 
might rest here, to consider what Gcd hath wrought, 
were the call not urgent to still more extended en- 
deavor. It really seems as though the purpose of God, 
voiced to Mr. McAll by that ouvrier of Paris nearly 
fifteen years ago, meant in its fulness, ' Thou shalt call 
a nation.' " 



J COUNTRY WITHOUT A SABBATH. 

THE English-speaking foreigner, on this day, will 
take his first lesson as to the extent of French 
moral degradation. Nature here has no restfulness, it 
carries its every-day, common-place appearance, be- 
cause the best effects of nature can only be gained in 
repose. It may be said this is sentiment. No matter, 
the world's sublimities are but sentiment. A world 
might better be without stars, song or flowers than to 
be without these, as it is the sentimentality in man 
which alone can utilize these. It is exhausting to live 
in a dusty, secular world, where the Sabbath hours 
are perverted to an unceasing round of traffic and 



200 



folly by a people who are strangers to the serene joy 
that the day brings to one prepared by a week of weari- 
ness to enter into its holy rest. France is a country with- 
out a Sabbath. It has no bar between man's mind and 
soul and everlasting drudgeries. Even our American 
people have not yet awakened to the importance of the 
Sabbath as a dyke between the mind and body of man 
and his task-masters. The weary laborer on Saturday 
night has the arm of God and the law stretched out 
between him and his oppressois. Capital has to throw 
off the belts from its engines, to close its iron doors for 
thirty-six hours at least, in most lines of business. 

Kum-shops and railroads have the monopoly in for- 
ever breaking the law which God has imposed for man's 
protection against the tyrannies of his fellow-men. But 
here in poor, oppressed France mammon rides over soul 
and intellect. Now and then there is a legal or church 
holiday, but they come to the weary in the wrong 
time. Instead of a day of rest, fitted to man's three 
constitutions, dividing existence by seven, that a new 
and restful seventh of life might relieve the friction of 
time, it is one continuous going on a dead level; no ele- 
vations are reached. The same muscles, same nerves, 
same sensations, without a Sabbatic variety. This 
phase of life is expressed hj Dickens in that character 
who was doomed to turn the crank of the mangle, 
whose bitter complaint was substantially that it was 
one everlasting " grind," whether it be in a round of 
wearying, feverish pleasure or of drudgery to keep from 
starvation. 

There is no set time here for meditation, therefore the 
people must be shallow and frivolous. To see the force 
of this let the scholar and the man of business think, iu 
the English world, how much of his progress comes 



201 

from heaven's ordained measure of time. In colleges 
let the remnants of classes try to recall those who 
studied on the Sabbath, or used it alone for pleasure, 
and ask where are they now. We have never known 
a student, who gave himself either to mere pleasure or 
to his studies habitually on that day, who, in the pro- 
fessional race of life, has not fallen behind his more 
prudent or conscientious class-mates, or dropped into 
the grave-yard long ago. In conversation with an 
eminent Christian Frenchmen we asked, "How is it 
that the religion which has given freedom, the tradi- 
tions of which live in the history of the Huguenot, 
makes such slow progress here?" " How can it," said 
he, "when they have no time to read or think and 
form habits for either ? How can you expect a French- 
man to know any thing or be any thing who has to 
work seven days in the week ?" 

The best average of laboring people in our happy 
country read every thing, their Bibles on Sabbath and 
newspapers in the week. The children of laboring peo- 
ple have their Sabbath-schools, where they learn good 
things and come home to find their fathers and mothers 
dressed nicely to receive them. They tell them all they 
have learned of God and good, and if the parents cannot 
read they can hear it from their own children, and can 
learn enough this way to make them good and sub- 
stantial people, loyal to tie great Master and their 
country. 

But who can do this in Paris ? If one wants to rest 
on the Lord day, his neighbor who will not takes his 
business or his employer discharges him, and his bread 
is gone. These poor people are now free, they can now 
speak their minds, but liberty has come too late. When 
the Frenchman can speak, he has nothing in him good 



202 



to talk about. All his knowledge, after lie begins to 
make a living for himself, is gained in the few minutes 
when he is sitting in the cafe, or waiting for a customer, 
and his anxiety will not let him abstract his thoughts 
long enough to learn any thing ; or if he is a clerk and 
wishes to read when he has no customer, then his em- 
ployer says, " Dust, or put up the goods.' ' So it goes 
all through the lower and middle life in France. The 
rich have no fixed time to read, any thing that is good, 
such as our Sabbath gives. If they get any thing it is in 
fragments, picked up, which they never digest, they 
do not try. Some leave their souls to the priests and 
do not concern themselves; and the poor man says, 
" God will not deal hardly with me, he knows how 
severe is my lot and he will pity me and save me." 
Then my intelligent French friend shrugs his shoul- 
ders, saying, " This is the religion and hope of my 
poor countrymen. When Satan took our Sabbath he 
forever heathenized France. We never can be any 
thing until we have a definite time, defended by moral 
sentiment and protected by the law, when our minds, 
souls and bodies can be rested in learning something 
good, and in thinking about what we learn." 

It was a sad confession, uttered in infinite pathos, 
and just as true as pathetic. When one wakes on 
that blessed day, which here has neither monument nor 
memories, he hears the cries of merchandise in the 
streets, their very wails are the utterance of mind and 
soul destitution. It seems as weariness wailing out its 
impotence. The faces of the most facile people have 
no Sunday smile of composed rest, the cry of trade is 
the utterance of the deep miserere of tired man, beast 
and nature. Flowers bloom* but there is no Sabbath 
on which exhausted lives may admire and be refreshed 



203 

by their fragrance. Nothing cheers men of labor, no 
matter what it be, like his home ; but there are no homes 
in Paris, there can be none where there is no Sabbath ; 
Sabbath is only another way of spelling home. The 
laboring man is rested in gospel lands seeing his chil- 
dren dressed by the mother's deft hands. He sees hope 
in those faces, reward for his self-denials, hard work, 
frugality and virtue. But, alas ! the man who lives in 
a country where there are no Sabbaths does not always 
know that the children about him are his own, and 
hence he has but little concern. The laboring man in 
the happy land of Sabbaths loves to see his wife dressed 
too — he says she is as pretty as on the day he led her to 
the altar, and the wife loves to see her husband attired 
like a gentleman at her side, and will make any sacri- 
fice to effect it. She is proud of him, his bronzed face is 
the joy of her life ; she trusts his honor and virtue every- 
where, and he has never had even a doubt about hers. 
But, alas! in this land without a Sabbath it is not so; 
no such fidelity arches the united lives, no such blessings 
are twisted in their bonds. In the blessed lands where 
Sabbath reigns one-seventh part of the time supreme, if 
a weary man walks out to survey nature, she refreshes 
him and he returns the compliment in a smile, a laugh, 
a song. Nature lives for him and he for nature, and 
they serve and admire each other. If his wife has but 
a pot of flowers hung from the ceiling he looks them 
over and smells their odors on the Sabbaths, he has 
no time, it may be, to do it on other days, but he is sure 
to do it then. If she has planted but a morning-glory 
he will pay it a visit and bless its beauties and praise the 
hand that planted it, and so the flower fulfils its mission 
and the wife is appreciated. And so we might go on, but 
it is enough to show that a country without a Sabbath 



204 



is ever near the gate of perdition morally, is intellect- 
ually weak and produces physical lilliputs, men so small 
that their clothes are padded to give them appearance. 
In her armies how can this country win, when her man- 
hood morally, intellectually and physically ever grows 
diminutive because she has no Sabbaths. 



JETSAM AND FLOTSAM. 

THERE is but one ciiy in the world, the queen city, 
all the rest ought to do obeisance to Paris, as all 
do pay their tribute to her. Eome is a dappled city 
with a patch of the wonders of architectural concep- 
tion and skill, and then a patch of supreme ugliness.- 
But Paris has but little within its vast circuit that is 
ungainly or mean. There are parts old and worn 
by time, broken and defaced by tumults, but what is 
left will carry the imagination to the time when it was 
beautiful of its kind. Nature is all in its favor. There 
never has been the necessity of hard grading, for while 
its site is not level its undulations are gradual. Its 
eminences were so related to each other that the best 
effects are easily obtained. The great objects of art, 
her palaces and buildings of state, her asylums and 
churches and imposing bridges are separated by long dis- 
tances, so that to this only may be applied the epithet of 
"the city of magnificent distances," and to which ought 
to be added magnificent nearnesses as well, for all these 
great objects ever seem to be right upon you. There is 
that marvel of cost and beauty, the Hotel des Invalides, 
with its gold covered dome, which, from the Place de la 



205 



Concorde, appears as if one were in its shade, while in 
truth it is miles away. 

The Church of the Madeleine impresses the observer 
as being within a stone's throw, though it is half a mile 
distant. The Trocadaro, with its two stately towers, at 
least three miles distant, is brought in vision to a few 
hundred yards. The idea of "effects" seems to have 
dominated everywhere and in every thing, and yet 
solidity and utility have never been sacrificed. The 
purpose of the structure is always apparent and its suit- 
ableness to its purpose is as evident; withal the grand 
general impressions of vastness and unity are nigh over- 
whelming. The river Seine runs through the city, as 
the Thames through London, dividing it nearly in the cen- 
tre, but the Thames is filthy in appearance, ever giving 
out vile odors, while the Seine appears clear and spark- 
ling. The London Thames embankment is far-famed, 
but not equal in extent or beauty to that of the Seine, which 
winds in graceful curves beyond to Anteuil, and east- 
ward beyond the limits of the city. The wall is in 
many places sixty feet high and five feet above the 
level of the streets, with superb copings, on which the 
people expose for sale all kinds of wares. This wall 
extends almost the whole length of the river fronts on 
both sides. The streets of Paris were laid out after the 
idea of a cat going around after its own tail, for no mat- 
ter at what extremity one may be, if he will travel 
towards the centre he will surely find himself confronting 
some of its great central objects. To the glory of its 
construction must be added the beauty of its avenues, 
many of which have rows of splendid trees on each side 
of the foot walks ; in the centre of these great avenues 
are lamps, and around them platforms of stone on which 
pedestrians may take refuge from the danger of passing 



206 

vehicles which are separated to one or the other side 
according to the direction in which they are moving. 

The parks, so well distributed over the city, with 
their graceful and cooling fountains are for the j>eople, 
and not for the rich only. They are brought so near 
the doors of the people that their children can play in 
them ; the poor can spread their frugal meals in them. 
The house of the Frenchman is a dormitory and a resort 
in bad weather. He lives out-of-doors, eats out-of doors 
and whenever he can get a place to lie down undis- 
turbed, sleeps out-of-doors; anywhere between the shore 
buttresses of the bridges and the river is a wide footway, 
and under the arches, close up to the wall, men and 
women are sprawled asleep in broad daylight. Passing 
along we saw an old woman sound asleep, her head 
dropped down over her lap, and moving one way and an- 
other as a buoy swayed by ripples of moving water. Her 
work lay beside her, she had been darning, her hand 
still thrust in the last stocking had dropped in her 
lap. She had slipped off one shoe, revealing the sore- 
worn foot that had gone on drudgeries for more than 
half a century. Her gray hair had fallen down at one 
side over her ear. It was a rare sight, a picture 
might have been made of it. Her utter unconscious- 
ness of those standing over her, the profound repose 
which weary nature had snatched from the hard toil in 
which she had always been driven affected us. What 
trouble had dilated that old heart still beating, or what 
hunger, cold and shelterlessness, what wrongs she had 
suffered, what sorrows had ploughed furrows upon that 
old weather-beaten face? what sins had made them 
their records on her soul ? Had she ever known the 
sweets of divine pardon ? Had that weary old frame 
ever gone after Him who only sympathizes with the 



207 

poor, the heart broken and distressed? Was there any 
hope in that shattered tabernacle of a better life 
" where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary 
are at rest?" Where are her earthly loves, for whom 
was she darning those well-worn stockings? Were 
they for the feet that ministered to her — the children 
of her youth and beauty and perhaps of affluence? 
perhaps when she rode in state ? Such were our mus- 
ings outside the curtains drawn between us and the 
past as well as the future. So we passed on not dis- 
turbing the rest so hardly earned and so uncomforta- 
bly sustained. Rest in peace, mother! You have 
started tender reflections in the hearts of those who 
have watched you for the sake of the world's dear 
motherhood. May you sleep sweetly until nature is re- 
vived, and when you sleep your last sleep may you 
wake in the likeness of " Him who giveth his beloved 
sleep." 

One immense advantage on the side of Paris over 
every rival is the presence of the best building materials 
lying underground and all about. Such stone can- 
not be found this side of Greece, and in some important 
respects it is better, harder and more durable, and in 
dressing down into the ornamental is not so likely by 
flaws to spall. Until the time of Napoleon III. the 
most of the stone was taken up from under the ground 
on which the city now stands, forming labyrinths which 
Napoleon utilized in his great sewer system and un- 
derground passages for sending troops unseen from one 
fort to any other, or to any part of the city where they 
may be needed. He then contemplated the presence 
of no worse foe than his own people. But time, that 
spoils all calculations, taught him an unexpected lesson, 
one as sad as surprising. In some quarries the limestone 



208 

is laminated, in thicknesses cf seven or eight inches, and 
of this kind is the palace Trocadaro, one of the most 
beautiful in all Europe. The body is made of two 
layers of light stone, of about six inches thick, and ono 
of red, making an exceedingly attractive surface. Limo 
and cements are incomparable uniters, it may be, to the 
famous Eoman cement, and are exceedingly cheap. 
Tiles, which fill so important a place in ornamentation 
without and within, are made near Paris of clay fine 
enough for China wares, in every conceivable form of 
fancy, and ornamented to the highest degree, and are not 
much more expensive than first-class paving bricks in 
the United States. 

But beauty costs everywhere, and here in particular, 
for in the most important matter of comfort there are 
no compensations. In order to grand effects height is 
necessary, and Paris has it with its advantages and dis- 
advantages. A store under a splendid mansion is here 
regarded as no objection. The house of the porter is 
the first story and then from the second up to the 
seventh are flats, the third and fourth being most desir- 
able, according to French ideas, but there is the ever- 
lasting climbing which never wearies French limbs ; 
if it does they do not complain. There are as yet few 
elevators in these great establishments, and even in 
the few hotels which have them they are so rickety 
and feeble in their motions, carrying but four or five, 
that the impulse is irresistible to catch something above 
and help them to move. 

— The sewerage of a great city is no w a problem of vital 
importance, and it is more nearly solved in Paris than 
anywhere else. The usual way is to drain into the 
nearest possible water-course, but the tides bring back 
all the poisonous exhalations and forces them with great 



209 



violence through the sewers, into the air without and 
into the houses. Or if it be a river without tide, the 
depth and current varies with the fulness and flow 
and the trouble remains worse than when confined in 
pools. The sewers of Paris are only taxed with the 
surface drainage, all else is periodically and carefully 
removed and becomes a source of revenue. The sewers 
are visited by many natives and tourists, more from 
idle curiosity than profit. Descent is made near the 
Madeleine. At the foot of the stairs one enters a long 
black boat holding about fourteen persons ; the whole 
gloomy scene is suggestive of crossing the river Styx. The 
main passage-way is about three and a half miles long, 
and is sixteen feet high by eighteen feet wide, built of 
solid masonry and cemented so as to be water-tight. 
From the boat a car is entered, the wheels of which run 
on trucks on each side of the sewer and is pushed along 
by man-power. The streets of the city are named and 
numbered underground as above, so the sewer system 
is Paris upside down. 

The water mains and telegraph wires are in the 
sewers; for a Parisian would never live under unsightly 
telegraph poles and wires. A class of men make a very 
good living by skimming the fatty matter from the 
water at the outlet of the sewers and making it into 
what is called " Marseillaise Soup." There are seven 
hundred miles of these underground tunnels ; they were 
constructed by Baron Hausman, in honor of whose 
life and services one of the finest boulevards of Paris 
bears his name, besides other unmistakable evidence of 
the obligations of the citizens to his memory. 

— The Catacombs were originally stone-quarries, but 
now are devoted chiefly as a common receptacle of the 
dead. Cemetery lots are not owned in fee, but rented 



210 

for a term of years, and at the expiration of the lease, 
if it is not renewed, or the bodies removed, they are 
taken up and conveyed in the night on a bier covered 
with a black pall, the priest chanting the burial service, 
and are dumped into a schute and go whizzing to their 
second burial with the general mass, where any of them 
would be bothered to pick out his own bones from his 
neighbors, if they should ever be needed. The con- 
tents of a leaden coffin were one night emptied down 
this schute, they were the mortal remains of the once 
beautiful and powerful, but infamous, Madam De Pom- 
padour, who wrote her own best epitaph when speaking 
of the appalling wickedness of herself and coadjutors, 
"After us — the Deluge." 

— The absence of the distressing signs of poverty is 
very marked. There are no doubt many poor and de- 
graded, but they are out of sight — horrid creatures are 
not often seen — more can be seen in London in a day 
than in Paris in a month. We do not say that it does 
not exist, far this is impossible, but how they keep it 
out of sight is perplexing. One way is apparent, no- 
body is permitted to solicit alms on the street, and no- 
body does except on fete days, which means freedom 
for beggars as well as everybody else. On one of the 
fete days, on the Boulevard de TOpera, a blind man was 
led by a little yellow dog, who knew as well how to 
steer his master through danger as a helmsman does a 
great ship. If he was going into peril he would pull 
hard on the chain which his master held away from it, 
and if this would not move him with proper celerity he 
took hold of his trousers leg, and when he had guided 
him to the stand the master gave him a little tin pail, 
holding from a pint to a quart, which he held by the 
handle in his mouth all day long, looking into the eyes 



211 

of the passers-by as much as to say, " Don't you see my 
condition? I have a family to support. Don't you see 
that my master is blind and his family is dependent on 
me?" He made himself and his condition known, and 
but few Americans and English passed that little yellow 
dog that did not make his bucket clink. It was noth- 
ing new to the Parisian, but very touching to English- 
speaking foreigners. Sometimes ladies would drop in a 
contribution, and turning to see the patient little 
creature holding his bucket in his mouth and wagging 
his tail, would turn about and make another and larger 
one. He has never been seen since that fete day, and 
we know one who mourns his absence whenever she 
goes on the street His life is doubtless a strolling one 
in the country towns where begging is not prohibited, 
and he and his charge will not appear in Paris again 
until another fete day. 

The yellow dog is a wonderfully intelligent creature 
here. He is small but talented, often assuming the pro- 
portions of genius. Pie can be taught to read by cards 
on which are objects with which he has been long asso- 
ciated. It is reported in the newspapers that Sir John 
Lubbock, of England, has such a dog. We have been 
told a story of one of this kind which we have no reason 
to doubt from what we have already seen. A dog was 
employed, as before described, to lead a blk d man to 
his place of begging and perform many little tricks for 
Avhich money was put in his bucket and thus supported 
his master. They were inseparable, but hard treat- 
ment and cold rains and winds undermined the consti- 
tution of the man, poorly clad, and no doubt poorly fed 
and sheltered ; he grew pale, thin and hollow-cheeked, 
the premonitory condition of consumption. He was 
seen growing weaker and weaker and coughing away 



212 

his remaining strength, but at last he came no more, 
but the little dog stood alone at the accustomed place 
going through with his antics and holding up his bucket 
for the reward of his service, which he took home to his 
dying master. At last both dog and master disap- 
peared, and inquiry was made, to find the sad facts 
that the master had died and the poor dog, wearied of 
life without him, lay down and died by the grave of 
him whom he had loved and served. 

The world at large knows but little of French inner 
life, how sentimental and yet how steadfast to convic- 
tions. The French people love liberty with a passion 
that belittles all the patriotism of those who have been 
so happy as to have it. His patriotism is boisterous 
because it is so excessive. The nations do not under- 
stand it, because it makes him so eccentric that he ap- 
pears more like a lunatic than a patriot. We learned 
many things about the French on their three fete days 
in July, which we could never have been told, nor 
could we have understood by reading. The prepara- 
tions, made by the government, were going on for days. 
The gas-fitters ruled the city. The houses are well 
adapted for displays by illumination, half-way up along 
all the principal street fronts are balconies running the 
whole length of immense squares ; on these were gas 
jets close together for miles on both sides of the broad 
avenues. Then over the wide openings into courts, from 
which the ascent is made into the buildings, were 
arches of light ; along the upper cornices in many great 
rows were these gas jets, and the observatories, of which 
there are from two to four on every row, were blazing 
often in beautiful design. The palaces and public 
buildings were ablaze with light, and the towers, spires 
and facades of the churches and great cathedrals, all 



213 

the fountains were lighted to the best effects, until in 
the night and by artificial lights they were wreathed in 
rainbows. 

— The great Louvre and Madeleine, the Hotel Des 
Invalides, with its gold-covered dome, Notre Dame, the 
Conciergie, on the spot where Louis XIV. and Marie 
Antoinette were imprisoned before death, were brilliant. 
The Trocadora with its high towers lit up the very 
heavens, until the stars were ashamed and went into 
three days obscurity and would not come out until the 
gas business was over. The Arc de Triomphe was lost 
in flame, so that from one end to the other of Champs 
Elysees it was like a sea of fire. No such a scene of 
indescribable splendor could be possible anywhere but in 
Paris. No other minds could have conceived it, no 
other hands could have executed. The people travelled 
the streets day and night ; one-third of the population 
never retired. They were not drunken ; we did not 
see a drunken man on any of those three days and 
nights. They were intoxicated with joy over this anni- 
versary of their liberties, which began in the destruction 
of the Bastile, and is now consummated in the overthrow 
of monarchy and empire. They sang the Marseillaise 
until they were without breath. They shouted in tri- 
umph, so that the skies and winds echoed it back again, 
old men and women on legs and crutches, old soldiers 
and young ones, childien and dogs, babies- and their 
mothers, all pressing on somewhere or anywhere their 
boundless joy led them. 

We have never seen or heard any thing approaching 
it. Bands played, bells rang, chimes sent out their 
merry peals, cannons blazed and boomed, the crowd 
smothered all with their " Vive la Republiquer Men 
and women played in concert along the streets on some 



214 

kind of mouth organ, shrill and loud, but pitched in 
concert, followed by hundreds singing. At the corners 
of the streets were bands, and five hundred men and 
women danced at once on the smooth asphaltic streets. 
All night long for three nights the great Boulevards, two 
hundred feet wide, were blockaded by the dancers, and 
this went on in every part of the city without quarrels 
or ruffianly disturbance. It was a wonderful outburst 
of patriotic joy, as if their hope of liberty through weary 
bleeding ages had come forth in boundless fulness at 
last. 



POLITICAL POSITIONS AND CONDITIONS OF FRANCE 

IjlVIDENCE of how little is known concerning the 
J actual political condition of France is found in 
the absurd editorials in England and United States 
about the popular risings expected on the 14th of July 
last. The London Times had a column's editorial de- 
precating the condition of affairs and f uneralizing on 
the probable deaths and bloodshed at the Fetes. An 
Englishman, who was reading it, whose business re- 
quires his residence here, exclaimed, " Was there ever 
such stupidity uttered! Think of it, only seven hours 
from London, in the Times, the greatest English paper, 
that such falsities should find place in an editorial 
leader. England is the most unmitigated ass on the 
globe when her prejudices and self-interest run to- 
gether." The French people are excitable and have 
dangerous elements threatening their peace, but never 
were they so well in hand as now. The" reason is if 
there is any thing in this life dear to the average 



215 

French heart it is this Republic. The masses are child- 
ish in their delight over their freedom, and they know 
every one of them who are their foes and how they ex- 
pect to overthrow the Republic. The French people 
under governments where they have no responsibility 
are like an unballasted ship under high pressure — un- 
steady; now it careens on one side and now on the 
other, but load it down to the gunwales and how 
changed, how steady her progress, how she parts the 
waves on either side in her onward course. Every man 
of the multitudes of France believes that he is carrying 
some part of the burden of the Republic. He may 
talk about men and methods, but he will stop if he sees 
that his freedom is imperilled. Responsibility turns 
Radicals into Conservatives, but lately a violent Radi- 
cal was given a prominent place in the present govern- 
ment and men said, "That's a bad choice, he is a fear- 
ful Radical." But President Grevy knew the philoso- 
phy of gravity, he loaded him with most important 
trusts, and the other day he delivered a speech that 
surprised all France for its ability, moderation and far- 
sightedness into the nature of the perils that environ 
the country 

Nobody ought to know better how to subdue Radi- 
cals than Americans, for in our last war a multitude 
were made moderate by putting them in the harness, 
and making them responsible before the high court of 
public opinion for their official conduct. We would 
ever define a Radical as a man who needs more ballast. 
The talk so current in our country about the danger- 
ous character of General Boulanger deserves hardly any 
more serious consideration than the danger of a war 
with Great Britain from manoeuvres of O'Donovan 
Rossa, although the General is a far better and more 



216 

reliable man. As far as we can understand, he is a 
dashing French officer, with more than usual executive 
or army organizing abilities, who has the not uncom- 
mon vanity of desiring what he does to be appreciated. 
He is a man of the masses, and has admirers among the 
irresponsible, loud-mouthed cafe people — and more, he 
has the hopes of many worthy people that he may be 
the coming man to defend their country in its perils. 
But they have not the slightest idea of following him 
into any revolutionary movements in France or any- 
where. Beside all this Paris is not France any more, 
the Republic has distributed the ruling power and re- 
sponsibility. War cannot be declared any more on 
the caprice or wounded vanity of any one man. 

The Deputies represent all interests, and no immediate 
interests to France will anywhere be conserved by war. 
The most likely cause of war is merely sentimental. 
The people of Alsace and Lorraine are loyal to France 
and will be nothing else, and no doubt being disloyal 
to their new masters have to put up with many petty 
oppressions, and their constant appeals to their former 
countrymen excite some people in France very much. 
But the cry of their wrongs will not be loud enough to 
arouse France just yet. The war of revenge is a for- 
gone conclusion, but the when no man knoweth. If 
France knows any thing it is that she is not yet ready, 
and the people will control themselves first, by the de- 
sire to do it without danger of failing, second, by the 
fact which they well know that it is going to cost blood 
and treasure when it does come. More, France is pros- 
perous, and a prosperous France is a contented France, 
or, in other words, then the best and safest elements 
rule. 

The thrifty will not rashly vote away substance and 
life. Trade here is wonderfully good, the merchants 



217 



of the earth are here buying her stores. France is a 
manufacturer which will never have dangerous com- 
petitions. Her products are the embodiments of her 
genius. No nation has such conceptions of the beauti- 
ful, artists from all countries are copying her designs, 
taking them away to reproduce them, but as often fail- 
ino- when done they are not French. This genius is, 
in°part, climatic, in part the result of education from 
the beautiful creations of genius and art collected here, 
which are before them from birth to death, and partly 
in the mixtures of blood. These elements of prosperity 
will always be here, making France mistress of the 
beautiful and useful, and as the French rarely leave 
their country a source of continuous wealth. At this 
time all these industries are taxed to their full extent. 
While England with only her useful products lan- 
guishes, France prospers, because the latter in her 
business has no competitors. 

The ideas ruling in politics are more diffused, and the 
people are not tempted to rebel through curiosity, or 
because they have no share in the motives controlling 
their rulers. The people know the policies of their 
rulers about German affairs. The policy of the govern- 
ment is to compel Germany to the attack. They have 
determined to have this justification to satisfy and unify 
their own people. They desire the sympathy of the 
nations, and Germany will not be able to torture them 
into overt acts; this is settled policy and it is approved 
by the people. Beyond this the French know that the 
Emperor of Germany is exceedingly averse to war in 
his old age, and as long as Le is Emperor there will be 
none under any ordinary provocation. They know, 
too, that the Crown Prince and Bismarck are not one, 
and that serious differences on public policies have ex- 
isted, and this will be in their favor. 



218 

Then last of all, they know that their army is not 
equal to that of Germany yet, and that they need time 
and means to perfect it and will build it up only as fast 
as it can be done without prostrating the industries of 
the nation. They have estimated also the effect on 
German finances and German patience of the increased 
army that Bismarck fooled the people into giving him, 
hoping that France would give him the pretext to fight 
soon. The quality of the French statesmen is improv- 
ing, the government is growing stronger and having 
the more constant confidence of the people, and every 
noble interest in time goes on the side of the Republic; 
all good to France is in it, and she is stronger in every 
element than the nations profess to believe. Her alli- 
ance with Russia is, at least, a brake on the policies of 
more than one of her neighbors. She has been, and is 
yet, worrying England prodigiously in her Egyptian 
affairs, which has been caused by Mr. Gladstone's cow- 
ardice, inability or insincerity. England had all the 
rights she claims now when she had put down Arabi's 
rebellion, and ought to have taken them then. France 
was by her own choice out of the field, and expected 
England to assume the Protectorate. Germany urged 
her to do it, but Mr. Gladstone, who was never worth a 
button in foreign politics, had a shuffling sentimental 
policy, in which he was going to have a love-feast, in 
which he would claim the lion's share as usual for Eng- 
land, and the result of his fiasco was the slaughter of 
thousands of brave men, the insidious sacrifice of Gor- 
don, and England, which is responsible, is now griev- 
ously tormented in the triangle between France, Russia 
and Turkey. She is eating " humble pie' ' on the failure 
of Wolf's mission. She may well feel it when Turkey 
slaps her in the face and exclaims " et tu Brute" It is 



219 



not surprising that she has her navy out again and 
has sham battles on her own coast, to show the world 
what she would do if she could find an occasion. 



SWITZERLAND -JETSAM AND FLOTSAM. 

OUR movements carry us toward the sunrising. The 
snnsetting has in it all that life has been ; all its 
sorrows and enjoyments are in that far away beyond 
the glowing clouds. Hope only leads on now, and we 
have given ourselves over to this helmsman and will let 
the man at the wheel alone. The journey through 
France is through a well tilled, skilfully planned gar- 
den. The chalk formation appears east of Paris as it 
did at the west, on to the coast of the Channel. Cen- 
tral France is chiefly devoted to grain growing and 
cattle raising. The farms seem larger than on the 
western side. The country impresses us, as all France 
does, as one of wonderful prosperity. Her factories are 
running away into the night. Her products are sold 
at the highest figure. Most products are as high here 
as in New York and Philadelphia, and if the duty is 
added higher. Living is higher than in New York 
for the same qualities ; there is nothing European about 
which Americans are deceived more than in their ideas 
of the cheapness of living in France. Even wines, in 
which so many Americans delight, are as dear as at 
home ; two francs a bottle does not seem much, but it is 
forty cents, and as good wines as the vin ordinaire can 
be purchased at home for this amount. 

As the fatal border is neared it is easy to see how 
great the loss sustained by France in her territory by 



220 

the grip of Germany; two of the brightest jewels of the 
crown were taken away. The two Rhine provinces of 
Alsace and Lorraine are beautiful and fertile. Their 
hills are hung with treasures of wealth in their vine- 
yards. Their valleys, through which run mountain water 
courses, are teeming in abundance. It must have been 
a bitter draught, the accumulation of more than a hun- 
dred years, but France must not forget that these 
Rhine provinces are only lendable estates. France 
took them from Germany, and forgot that they were 
never hers in fee, and had to learn the hard, but inevi- 
table lesson, long ago thundered in the ears of national 
greed, " Thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy 
neighbor's." God measures out humiliations by the 
minutest exactitudes, he will teach that both Germany 
and France are tenants of his estates. Germany has 
drunk up her share of the cup of bitterness, his tonic 
for the health of the nations, and France had lost her 
tone and needed the same treatment for about one hun- 
dred and fifty years, and she might as well patiently 
accept the situation and feel that she has exchanged 
land for discipline which will be better in the end. At 
the very border of this territory, when there is not an 
indication that the boundary is reached, every thing 
looking French like, the cars are stopped, baggage ex- 
amined by another race, separated from the " oui" " oui" 
by " Ja Ja," but a mighty chasm lies between. It is 
not long we stay in German dominion, for soon the 
Rhine, that river which has seen the birth of Europe 
and threads its way through its histories, was crossed 
and we were in the Republic of Switzerland, whose 
freedom, like our own, was gained against fearful odds, 
according to the divine formula, " one shall chase a 
thousand and two shall put ten thousand to flight." 



221 



The history of the contest reads like a romance, with 
the hair standing up upon one's head. The people hold 
position now by the might of weakness and by the 
jealousies of their neighbors, as when dogs are fighting 
over a bone it is quite apparent that the bone takes no 
part in the struggle. Switzerland, now, would not cut 
much of a figure defending herself against any of her 
neighbors, when her mountain defences are half dug 
down by railroads. The first city to receive the pilgrim 
into the country without a king is Basle. It manufac- 
tured and dealt in history, civil and ecclesiastical, in 
the past. But both the city and its histories have all 
gone to sleep. It is the dullest place out of Turkey, a 
place, however, of wealth, beauty and refinement. Its 
once famous university was noted for such men as 
Erasmus, Euler and a galaxy of Reformation constella- 
tions, but is now reduced to the proportions of a school 
of about three hundred. The glory of Switzerland is in 
her Protestant struggles, and her triumphs for the faith 
as it is in the Word of God, all was measured by this, 
and all that would not come up to its demands was cast 
away as vile rags. 

Basle was the brain of this intellectual and moral 
life; she is overwhelmingly Protestant yet. This boon, 
out of which came her freedom, was the price of blood, 
and plenty of it. There has been a prodigal sowing of 
martyr life in Switzerland, and much of it in the Can- 
ton of which Basle is the capital. Switzerland held to 
the Reformed faith, a more scriptural order than Lu- 
theranism. The Lutherans have been fettered by the 
fact that connection in some ligaments of their faith 
with Rome was never in reality entirely broken. Lu- 
ther was anathematized by the Pope, and cursed back 
again, but he never lost all the lineaments of his old 



222 

"Pap," and many of his followers have kept them and 
have improved on them ; hence there is a deal of High- 
churchisminGermany whose action is Homeward, and by 
reaction infidelward, and the cause of much of the dead- 
ncss still extant. Luther's sacramentarianism has been 
borne across the ocean and a small crop raised in our 
country — enough to sample the lot. Zwingli was a 
Radical, he stripped the very foliage from living truths 
that he might clasp them by their bodies. His doctrine 
of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was almost as 
bare as Luther's was redundant. It was to him no 
more than a memorial institution, which in Calvin's ex- 
egesis bore richer fruit and more of it. But it is even 
better in great moral crises that great truths were 
pruned than overloaded. Basle had the best moral 
and intellectual thought of this time woven into its his- 
tory. Zwingli, Bucher, Bullinger, Calvin and others, 
either stars or satellites, glorious in all their relations, 
have left a lustre on her past more wonderful than the 
colored mists, the treasures of her mountains, which 
give her atmosphere such strange and peerless beauty. 

But Basle is great in her past. The Pilgrim does not 
find much promise in her present. She, like all Switz- 
erland and Germany and France, is fettered by the 
notions or neglects of these old reformers about the Sab- 
bath. Moral life without a Sabbath yields but stunted 
growths. Sabbath-breaking is digging away the nurture 
from the tree of life. Religion, like animal and vegeta- 
ble species improved by loug culture, when robbed of 
its day of rest, given to moral meditations, goes back 
into the original type of heathenism. This is the worst 
form of deterioration the Continental churches have to re- 
sist. A people who work six days in the week and give 
the seventh to pleasure will know nothing, and Chris- 



223 

tiaiiity without constantly increasing religious knowledge 
is like a bird without wings, or like Prometheus bound. 
We have an example before us this minute. This 
morning being Sabbath when we went to breakfast tho 
concierge met us, saying there was a grand excursion 
on the lake of Zurich, the very thing. We could spend 
a splendid day seeing the mountains and from the moun- 
tains surveying the valleys. Grand! But we said, 
" We are going to church." He shrugged his shoul- 
ders and looked in mingled pity and disgust. We 
asked him if he knew any thing of Scotch Presbyterian 
services. " No ! No !" and then a bright thought suf- 
fused his face, his eyes twinkled with delight, he 
had solved the dilemma for those who would lose 
the beauties of the excursion in going to church. Said 
he, " There will be a balloon ascension this afternoon, 
you can see that ;" and as we write thousands of peo- 
ple are on the streets and housetops and everywhere 
else in the burning sun, waiting the balloon ascension, 
and they do not think that they are doing any harm, 
perhaps half of them, or even more, were at church 
this morning. The balloon is to counteract the severi- 
ties of their devotion this morning. 

The blight of S.ate patronage lies over the whole 
Swiss church as over the whole of Europe. The symp- 
toms of spiritual decay are ever apparent. The church 
breathes through one lung, her life is sluggish, her pro- 
gress slow, if not uncertain, still there is life, and some 
good work is being done at home and abroad. The 
Seminary at Lausanne is sending forth an evangelical 
ministry ; there have been some revivals of religion and 
modern evangelical methods are being introduced, but 
not to the same extent as in France, and to English 
ideas very, very slow. Switzerland has had no great 



224 

calamity as France to wake her up and set her people 
to the inquiry as to whether God has any thing special 
to do in national ups and downs. There is a tradition 
about Basle which would be admirable as the religious 
policy of the hour. In former times they kept their 
clocks one hour ahead of every city in Europe. This 
singular habit was a part of the religion of the people ; 
one reason given was that they were lazier than other 
people and took this means of hurrying themselves up 
to time, a blessed suggestion to the church everywhere ; 
the time has come to set our clock ahead, for we are 
behind our opportunities, we need to be goaded on by 
the vibrations of the moments. And so in this concep- 
tion the late Dr. Merle de Aubigne, when the great 
history of the Reformation was being written, had 
chiselled on the stone over the study-door in Latin, 
" The time ii short," and hence he wrote as if every 
moment was the last, and Calvin, in his house near by, 
while dying, wearied three amenuenses in the finishing of 
the last of his noted commentaries. But the best of sen- 
timents will not keep either minds or souls alive without 
motion from deep, heart-loving convictions. There 
must be a revival here. There is no place in the wide 
world to pasted over with good and godly sentiments 
as Europe, but the people will sleep on them. 

There is religious literature everywhere and in sev- 
eral different languages, but in countries where the relig- 
ious sensibilities of the multitudes are blunted the power 
of the Holy Spirit alone can bring them to consider and 
relish scriptural or experimental truth. There is a slow 
change for the better, but this flood-tide of literature i.s 
not always the best or wisest. Everywhere in Switzer- 
land is to be found a London republication of a paper 
published at Battle Creek, in Michigan, which I as 



225 

a great deal that is readable and profitable, but 
there are long discussions as to whether the seventh 
day or the first of the week are the Bible Sabbath. It 
occurred to us how absurd many well-meaning people 
are in their efforts to do good. What is the use of long 
and labored argument about the seventh day of the 
week as the true Sabbath to a people who will not con- 
sider any Sabbath with any degree of seriousness. We 
do not believe in this seventh day business, but would 
be so delighted if they would only observe the Jewish 
Sabbath that we would not think it worth while to tell 
them that any other view in the church had ever pre- 
vailed. How much better if God's people could pre- 
sent a solid front on the subjects on which they are at 
one, enough surely to save the world. 

We do not believe that immersion is the only scrip- 
tural form of baptism, but we would have little 
reason for regret as Christians if our Baptist breth- 
ren were bringing all unbelief and heathenism to 
Christ, and immersing every one of them. We do not 
mean to minify the importance of these great questions, 
but let discussion go on where it does not impress the 
idea of Christian disharmony in saving the world ■ this 
in our judgment is a greater evil. 

A few hours journey east is Zurich, having all the 
activities that Basle wants, the most beautiful city in 
Switzerland, with the push of Chicago in every depart- 
ment in life, while it has a beauty of natural environ- 
ments, of architectural grandeur that Chicago can never 
possess. It sits between its munition of rocks, beside its 
lake of bluest waters, as the Queen of the Alps. Her 
people are prosperous and well behaved, and from cen- 
tre to circumference there is no shocking poverty. As 
the most thrifty people in Pennsylvania are the Dutch, 



228 

a fair mixture of natives with the blood of the German, 
crossed or modified by climate and environments, so the 
citizens of Zurich are largely a cross between the Swiss 
and Germans. While it is good for the race it is hard 
on both the languages, which are as badly corrupted as 
the mixed English and German called Pennsylvania 
Dutch. But the outcome is a larger and handsomer peo- 
ple, with great elements of physical, intellectual strength. 
Zurich has a glorious history and has had her hands to 
the elbows in the conflicts that have closed historic 
cycles, the last pages always written in blood. It has 
the honor of being the spot in Switzerland where the 
Reformation gave vent to the Protestant civilization 
which has changed the face of the globe, made all the 
geographies of Europe and changed them at its will, 
and will soon dominate the earth, all nations coming 
into its living, acting image. 

It has in its arsenal relics of the men who gave her 
her dower of historic lore. In the old arsenal are the 
battle-axe and sword, the casque and coatof-mail of 
Zwingli, and the bow with which William Tell shot the 
apple from his son's head. Of course, we do not for- 
get that there are some who profess to show that all hero- 
ism is mythical, and that William Tell, Pocohontag 
and Captain Smith are all alike myths. There is this 
comfort, however, that not many of our day will pro- 
voke this exterminating instinct. It is a surprise that 
Zwingli has not suffered the same fate, and that men do 
not have to save their reputation by saying Zwingli, "if 
I may be allowed the expression." The Cathedral 
where he preached and denounced the errors of Rome 
is one of the institutions to which the native points with 
pride, and in sight is St. Peter's church where for 
twenty-five years the celebrated physiognomist Lavater 



227 

was pastor, who, when Zurich was captured by the 
French army, was shot by a soldier to whom a few min- 
utes before he had given a cup of wine. His remains 
lie in the church -yard of St. Anne's. 

The library and museum hold precious treasures to 
the scientist, historian and antiquarian. There are in 
the library three letters from Lady Jane Gray, written 
to Bullinger in Latin, one from Frederick II. to Mul- 
ler, a Greek Bible, which belonged to Zwingli, with 
marginal notes in Hebrew in his own hand-writing. 
There is also a bust of Pestalozzi, who was also a citizen 
of Zurich. In the museum is the greatest collection of 
relics of the prehistoric lake dwellers — the re is no doubt 
of the relics, they are before you honest and sure, ready 
to answer any curious fancy. The instruments of the 
stone, bronze and iron ages have, like Daniel, come to 
judgment. We propose to interest those of our readers, 
who have not and may never see them, with a careful 
presentation of the most perfect of each in the order 
arranged by the best scientific skill, first by the discov- 
erer, Dr. Ferdinand Keller, and then by a series of 
eminent successors. 

The existence of pre-historic villages in Swiss lakes is 
beyond doubt, and the first point of interest is — how 
were they built? By driving piles down in the chalk-beds 
of the lake ; for the chalk beds seem to follow with but few 
breaks all our way from Dover, England. These stakes, 
or piles, were bound together by cross-ties or walled into a 
solid mass above high water mark, and on these houses 
of brush were built, the brush intertwined like lath and 
plastered, covered or thatched with straw. There are in 
the museum in Zurich fragments in such a state of preser- 
vation as to prove these statements beyond doubt, and if 
any are unbebeving they can go almost anywhere in 



228 

the peat bogs on the lake and digging through it into 
the soft chalk deposit find the ends of the piles in a fair 
state of preservation. 

The second question is, why were they built? and this 
brings to memory the skeleton of a lecturer on the 
Catacombs at Rome, a quondam Frenchman who 
formerly inhabited the United States of America, by 
name of Professor De Launay. He said, " Vat is de 
Catacomb? Vere is de Catacomb and vy is the de 
Catacomb in de place vere it is?" The theory is that 
the lake dwellers built these houses in the lakes for pro- 
tection, and when pursued by their enemies they scam- 
pered across the bridge, which was turned or dropped, 
and thus pursuit was checked. 

Third, How did they get where they are now? 
Great antiquity has been assigned to the men who 
manufactured stone implements, they have been placed, 
generally by amateur scientists, far back in man's pro- 
gress from the anthropoid apes up to this period of 
patent leather boots and " boiled shirts." It is thought 
by the anti-Mosaic cosmogonists that fire was a scarce 
article in those times, a luxury which sometimes cost 
its possessors much trouble to obtain and control, and 
that fire was produced in these lake dwellings by rub- 
bing two sticks together until by blistered paws ai)d 
friction it blazed, and when it had been thus gained it 
would be a treasure worth keeping. The Patriarch 
suggestively says, " Can a man take fire into his bosom 
and not be burnt?" If while these pre-historic dwellers 
were sleeping, sparks would fly out and ignite their 
feather beds, or start a blaze in a gown, or perhaps in the 
trundle-bed of the children, there would be a conflagra- 
tion, and before the fire companies could get on the scene 
all the treasures of stone hatchets and cooking utensils 



229 

must have been burned and dropped to the bottom of the 
lake. But what is not a little perplexing is that there is 
no fossil human bone among the relics ; either the denizens 
must have burned up clean and their ashes disappeared, 
or they were better swimmers than the antediluvians. 

The first hatchets of the stone age have neither 
holes in them for handles nor indentations to hold the 
handle to its place when tied, showing, as is believed, 
the lowest form of mechanical ideas and skill. They 
were probably set into handles of wood, which had 
holes to receive them. But the next arranged series 
shows progress not only in the article produced, but 
implying the machinery producing it as well. These 
stone hatchets, &c, have holes bored through them. 
The inventive genius of the learned men who have dis- 
covered them appears in a contrivance to show how 
this pre-historic race accomplished these borings. The 
exhibition showed how a piece of alder wood, with the pith 
pushed out from it and the end trimmed down to a point 
or edge on the outside, put under gentle pressure by a 
lever at the top and whirled by means of a bow-string, 
the bow being drawn back and forward would give it the 
velocity of a drill, and by the use of hard sand at the 
point the hardest stone was bored like wood, the alder 
drill being tubular would leave a core of stone in the 
centre. There are specimens where this is the case, the 
boring had been given up from some cause before being 
finished. If any of our readers have the curiosity to try 
it they can use a piece of sugar cane instead of the alder 
for the drill and run it as a bow-drill so common among 
iron-workers ; they will be astonished how easily the 
hardest stone can be bored by its own dust. 

The progress in art of this people can also be seen in 
the elliptical hole in the hatchets, made by boring two 



230 

holes side by side and cutting away the parts between, 
making a hole in which the handle would not turn. The 
next objects of interest in these primitive contrivances 
were bone needles, the first were only stilettoes without 
eyes, and could only have served the purpose of awls. 
But, following in the advance of their ideas of adapta- 
tion of means to ends, were bone needles with eyes, at 
first some distance from the upper end, then right at 
the end, as we have them now. One cannot keep 
fancy caged all the time in scientific investigations. 
Those hairy pre-Adamite Adams, according to some 
of the man-making theorists, will appear in our mind's- 
eye as sitting cross-legged with the garments to be 
sewed pinned to their knees, and this will push us still 
further out into the domain of inquiry, and we must 
search for the knee-pins used in this primitive tailoring. 
Was the "goose" also a pre-historic contrivance? If so 
we must search for this too. 

The next evidence of intelligence in art is the 
weaving, and parts of the fabrics were before us. This 
was done by hanging the threads of the chain perpen- 
dicularly with weights at the ends of each — and the 
weights are here for inspection. The wool was run 
through these hanging threads, making a fabric not 
light in texture, for as yet the drive of the loom was 
not even in conception. Domestic vessels for holding 
water, cooking, &c, seem very primitive, made of 
clay by hand and burned in open fires. Some of these 
are rather pretty in shape, but as yet there was no effort at 
ornamentation. There is also a mill for grinding corn, 
which is a stone with a hollow in it that would hold a 
quart of wheat and a round ball about three inches in 
diameter which was rolled over it. (The bread made 
of this flour must have been a gritty morsel, and those 



231 



old heroes, perhaps, ate so much grit in their lifetime 
that their easy petrification when dead might thus be 
accounted for.) 

The impression of the identity of the people of this 
stone age and their implements with our own North 
American Indians is quite irresistible. This stony civil- 
ization must have obtained universal empire, and if we 
dared let imagination loose on a subject so solemn 
and profound, we could give a few embellishments to 
cover the appalling nakedness of its relics. We can 
hardly pass it by without a thought of the means of its 
universal diffusion. Did they roam about loose before 
the Atlantic Ocean was gathered in drops and given its 
bounds, while it yet floated in hot mists waiting for the 
northern blizzard to bring it into the globular form ? Or 
were Bearing's Straits only rippling rivulets so that they 
could easily wade through? Or had these stone- work- 
ers built crafts by which they could navigate the seas? 
If our readers do not accept any one of these suggestions 
it will not hurt our feelings. We have the profound con- 
viction that the dwellers on the lakes in Switzerland, and 
the dwellers who, with their stone implements, sleep in 
our western mounds were the same race and descended 
from the same source. 

We will begin our descriptive catalogue again in the 
transition from the stone into the bronze age, at which 
point they overlap. Hammers of stone and bronze are 
found together, the Nabobs no doubt having the bronze 
hammers and the Mudsills the stone, but being then as 
ever dependent on each other their implements are 
found together. One of the first signs of civilization at 
this time is the evident progress in hanging up things. 
The dame in the stone age, sewing with her eyeless 
needles, left the broom lying upon the floor, her gar- 



232 

men ts there too, just as she stepped out of them; the 
clothes of the old man lay where he pulled his tired 
frame out of them. Towels, baby's clothes, hoop skirts, 
&c, like ottomans at present in dark parlors, tangled the 
feet and upset the incoming guests, and many carried 
the marks of these unsesthetical ideas down to the grave. 
But now in the Museum we see wooden clothes-hooks 
and deer's horns which had been fastened to the wall, 
on which extraneous things were hung in well regulated 
households. 

Thus we see how long a good custom will last, and 
how it, like a golden thread, will go through the woof 
of ages. We have seen the walls in the agricultural 
dwellings in Pennsylvania and Ohio ornamented with 
the frocks of the good housewives and daughters, 
turned inside out, displaying the colored paper- 
muslin about the waist, and also variegated dresses over 
which these were worn, producing the best effects 
of beauty and suggestive to the beaus of the probable 
extent of the daughter's wardrobe. There are also 
water chestnuts taken from these ruins, of a kind extinct 
everywhere except at Lake Maggiore. Grindstones are 
to be seen on which this early sharpening and polishing 
was done, which are only flat surfaces, and over them 
the articles were rubbed backward and forward, of 
the same sandstone as that of which magnificent build- 
ings of the city are now constructed. This overlaps the 
second period of the bronze age, which marks the begin- 
ning of aesthetics as a continuous display of art skill up 
into the iron age. 

Ornamentation appears at first very elementary, con- 
sisting of lines, dots and circles and their combinations. 
Pottery has a change in shape and is ornamented, 
chisels, knives and spear-heads are also embellished in 



233 

designs which would not be out of place in our present 
advancement. And now we are at the beginning of the 
moulders' art; from this time on the moulds shape al- 
most every useful utensil. Fish-hooks appear larger and 
clumsier, but in device not different from those of the 
present, and strangest of all, in the time of this bronze 
age were safety-pins. We suppose that necessity was 
then as now the mother of invention, and that the same 
necessities have continued along the lines of the race 
and we as the result have these both first and last. 
Crochet hooks, hair-pins in abundance with a knob on 
the end as we have them still, and clusters radiating 
as those now worn in Italy. 

The second stage of the bronze period is marked as 
the beginning of beauty in art, in personal ornaments 
and domestic utensils, done by engraving needles. This 
is also seen on knives, pikes, spear-heads, combs and 
pendants, rings and buttons. Pottery became more 
graceful in shape, as were also sickles and swords. And 
what is even more marvellous, establishing the identity 
of child-nature and its wants in all ages of man's being, 
is the presence of rattles recovered from the wrecks of 
home life so long past. This introduces the iron age, 
in which the first noticeable objects are chisels with 
sockets for handles, ornamented, also hatchets, axes, 
swords, knives and all forms of utensils for peace, agricul- 
ture, mechanics and warfare. This will suffice to give 
an intelligible description of these wonderful treasures 
of the far off past. We have described them according 
to their arrangement to show development and progress 
through their ages. But while the theory is exceed- 
ing plausible, because every thing in the Museum has 
been arranged to suit it, sense seems to dominate intellect 
as to any other conclusion. But there is necessity for 



234 

much that is pure assumption, such as scientists would 
never grant theologians. 

The facts of the presence of these utensils in a rising 
order of progress none would dare deny, but was there 
of necessity any such order in time ? The stone and 
bronze overlap each other, as do the bronze and iron. 
Why may they not have been contemporaneous ? On 
the battle field of Tippecanoe, in the United States, 
bows, arrows, spears and swords, flint-lock guns and 
pistols are all found ; would this prove that first a race 
of men lived there who used only bows and arrows, that 
these passed slowly away, and then swords represented 
a higher order, and then pistols and guns a higher 
order still. All these evidences of progress, gathered from 
the instruments found in the same or different localities, 
are not enough to prove the development progress of the 
race. They may be indicators of general advancement 
of different parts of the same race at the same time, 
and while we have no hostility to the theory we would 
be slow to accept it from remains arranged to suit 
any particular theory prevailing in the minds of those 
so arranging them. 

After all this amateur philosophizing as to the 
untold ages of man's presence on the earth, on account 
of which many Christians have been scared out of their 
wits lest Genesis should be cast out, science itself dispels 
the mists around its own life, and we find that the great 
men who know most of it are very modest and conser- 
vative, and will not give a greater antiquity to these 
wonderful specimens than from fifteen hundred to two 
thousand years before the Christian era, a period ending 
just prior to the rise of the Roman supremacy. What 
has truth to fear in all the realm of the universe? God 
and his Word are one, and his Word cannot fail. Science 



335 



is itself a revelation of God, an unfolding of his mode 
of activity in the past ; by it forecasting the future. 
Science is life, with the power in itself to reject what is 
not true. Its only cry to impatient men is "wait!" 
Patience and persistence are its dogmas. We shall 
know if we go on to know, and though her impetuous 
followers load up her chariots with ingenious con- 
jectures, often for no other purpose than to antagonize 
what has been accepted for ages, true science strips 
them off as corn husks from the hidden grains, and 
gathers whatever of truth they may contain while it 
throws the husks to the swine. The truth, in however 
many forms of revelation it appears, is one, as the colors 
of the rainbow hide themselves in light. There may 
be antagonisms between the seekers, but none in the 
truth sought. Wait for the vision, when it shall come 
without intervening discoloring and distorting mists. 

David, not unlike many of our time, did not set a 

sufficiently high value on the privileges of God's house 
when he lived next to it, as people who live nearest the 
church are as a general thing the last to get into its ser- 
vices. But David changed his tuna when he was 
beyond the reach of the temple. Only when an exile 
did he value what had been lost of the wealth of divine 
privilege. So he cried with a passionate love, which 
still thrills the soul of the believer, " My soul longeth, 
yea, even thirsteth for the courts of the Lord; my flesh 
and my heart crieth out for the living God," &c. We 
started in search of a place of worship in Zurich where 
we could intelligently comprehend and gather up our 
remembrances of His mercies as well as a deeper con- 
sciousness of our own needs, which we would have fain 
introduced into prayer for forgiveness and help into a 
better condition of life. But we were thwarted at every 



236 

turn. Not that there are not churches here, but their 
songs and messages of truth are in a strange tongue, 
and we could but ask ourselves, "How can. we sing the 
Lord's song in a strange land?" The guide-books said 
the Scotch Presbyterian Church had a service, and if 
our Scotch brethren but knew how the few wandering 
Presbyterian sheep, who do not give themselves up to 
the Sabbath-breaking habits of the country, would 
appreciate their services and the preached word, in which 
duty is clearly denned and enjoined in the midst of 
the dissipating influences of tourist life, they would not 
weary in their well-doing. We could only hear of an 
English Episcopal service, and even the servants could tell 
that it was " very high,' ' which would be proof enough 
that it would be very dry. We have enjoyed Christian 
privileges with our Episcopal brethren, and should never 
turn away from a place where the prayers are fervent 
and the gospel is preached. But when it means a ser- 
vice altogether strange, and not found in the parts of 
the Prayer-Book in which we learned to read in child- 
hood, it is perplexing and unprofitable, especially when 
it is accompanied by a little wheezy melodeon, poorly 
played, and when the back is all we can see of priest or 
rector. We must not be considered uncharitable if we 
say we prefer it at the old Koman Catholic font, and in 
Latin, droned so that we cannot understand it, where 
we can have some undisturbed reflections from our own. 
But so hungry were we that even this would have been 
endured but for the fact that when we reached a little 
back street, where it was said services would be held, 
the doors were locked. A solitary old woman stood 
by, dressed in black, with a silver plate on her bosom. 
When asked about the service she said, with great 
gravity, that there would be " Matins," with the accent 



237 



on the " t " " Matins" with one old toothless saint were 
not specially inviting. She was asked if she knew any 
thin, of a Scotch service. She gnashed her teeth and 
saidrwith the utmost contempt, <<Naw, I know nothing 
about it" We had some recollection of the devils 
being lured out of Saul by David's music, but that any 
prospect of such a disenchantment by the voice of this 
old servant did not occur. So we moved on, and after 
we had gone a square met a man bustling on, whom 
we supposed to be the rector, but his appearance was 
no more assuring than the words of the old body we 
had left. So there was but one alternative— which 

was to go home. • 

In the evening we sallied forth, but every church 
was closed. In our wanderings we heard sacred sing- 
ing, several voices in chorus. It was a tune familiar 
to our ears. We located it as best we could, tried all 
the doors, and walked round and round until its last 
cadences died sweetly away. We waited and hoped to 
hear the voice of prayer following, but only silence 
reigned. Neither song nor praise was again heard. 
Some godly family had no doubt closed the day m an 
evening hymn, and had knelt in prayer, all unconscious 
of the interest they had imparted to the sojourn of the 
Christian pilgrim in their vicinity. 

There is a new way of doing Christian work, 
the power of which is plainly seen in the countries 
through which we are passing. Indeed, in mission 
work it is almost every thing. It is "the hand- 
shaking gospel," not as a mere formal thing, as artifi- 
cial as turning the crank of a hand-organ ; it is not the 
ordinary "how do you do, sir," but a tender concern 
for others, felt in the touch of the hand. Be sure you 
understand it before you try it, for the gospel of hand- 



238 

shaking is a heart-grace. It is not the convulsive 
seizing of a man's hand with the grip of a vice, and a dis- 
cussion of the weather, but the impressing him by very- 
few words that your interest in him is of the heart. In 
Scotland an instance illustrative of this occurred. A 
church was located in a fashionable place, into which 
had gone a large congregation of people, who used the 
church to promote their social position. It was the 
sanctuary where the efforts were all for quality, style 
in dress and person. If they were not objects of wor- 
ship they were of admiration. It was thought that this 
high-toned ness would certainly attract wealth and 
nobility. But they had reckoned without calculating 
the force of God's way of working, which is that " the 
weak things of this world shall confound the mighty." 

A nobleman of wealth, birth and honorable place 
was hastening to this church on what promised to be a 
great occasion. Two of the most eminent men of the 
kingdom were to be present on that Sabbath. The 
foreign missionary cause, in which he was greatly in- 
terested, was to be presented. As he reached the 
vestibule the plate was being passed for the offerings, 
the elder dressed in faultless style. The plate he 
carried was filled with bills and sovereigns. He 
hastened to welcome the Earl, who was standing within 
the audience-room, waiting for the eminent elder, whom 
he knew, to give him a seat in the crowded church. 

As he neared the Earl a modest, timid, elderly 
woman, whose face had been chastened by sorrow, who 
was arrayed in what seemed to be faded widow's weeds, 
came timidly near. She was poor, but bore the marks 
of Christian ladyhood, she had lifted her hand and laid 
a penny, the only one on the plate, amidst the heaps of 
shining gold. It was a lone thing in the midst of wealth, 



239 



a poverty-stricken copper among glittering crowns. 
The elder, tenderly enough in manner, lifted it from the 
plate and handed it to her saying, "Pardon me, we 
don't take coppers to-day." And then said to the Earl, 
" It will give me great pleasure to conduct you to a seat." 
The Earl made no reply, his eyes were fixed on the 
sadly retiring form, in whose eyes he thought he dis- 
cerned falling tears. He, after a moment, said, "Par- 
don me, I think I will go and worship with the old 
woman whose penny you rejected," and without further 
words departed, greatly to the embarrassment of 
the elder and the minister, who had esteemed it a 
great honor, for the Earl had never been there before. 
The minister asked what had occurred, was he offended 
because he had waited a moment for a seat? It cast a 
gloom over all expectations. The elder could give no 
satisfactory reason, but the words lingered strangely 
and accusingly in his ears, " Pardon me, I think I will 
worship with the old woman whose penny you rejected." 
It was not until the elder had retired at night that 
the secret flashed upon him, after the review of the day 
which had been a great success in raising money, and in 
soul-stirring eloquence from the great preachers. But 
none of them quite satisfied the elder's troubled heart 
and perhaps wounded vanity, that he had missed the 
honor of conducting the Earl to a seat. He recalled 
the word3, " Pardon me, sir, I think I will worship with 
the old woman whose penny you rejected :" at last the 
meaning flashed across his mind in the Saviour's words, 
"Verily, I say unto you, that this poor widow has cast 
more in than all they which have cast into the treasury : 
for all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of 
her want did cast in all that she had, even all her 
living." 



240 



Reproach seized upon him and shook his conscience. 
He could not even confess his sin for upbraiding him- 
self for his dulness in spiritual things. " How is it," 
he said, "that I, a Christian of twenty years, could not 
understand the Scripture that I had read as a child 
with wonder and admiration? How strange it is that 
even in childhood I despised ostentatious giving, and now 
that I should have been so captivated with it and made 
so heartless by its glamour that I could insult the poor, 
broken heart by handing back what the Saviour had 
commended. I am hot fit to be an elder, nay not even 
a beadle, for poor Jamie, who sweeps the house of God, 
would have been more considerate and Christlike. One 
of three things I will do, I will be an elder according 
to the spirit of my Master .and his apostles in our 
church, or I will be an elder to the poor and grief- 
stricken, and measure ability by sacrifice, or I will go 
back to the pew consciously unfit for the beadle's 
place." 

So saying he arose and confessed his sins, among 
them his want of that spiritual apprehension that could 
not detect the image of Christ in his poorly clad saints, 
and his very soul shivered as he asked the Lord to for- 
give him for worse presumption than Uzzah's in dar- 
ing to take the penny from his treasury, and with it 
insult one of his little ones. He lost no time in telling 
his bitter experience, deploring his own guilt to the 
minister, who told it to the ehurch, and many felt as 
much accused as their elder, and henceforth the church 
changed its course, so that now the rich and poor sit 
down together, and the pennies of the poor and the 
pounds of the rich lie together on the plate, for the Lord 
to weigh and give their true value. 

But what became of the Earl? He quickly over- 
took the poor woman, with her penny still clutched in 



241 

her hand — she walked rapidly, and as she went fre- 
quently took her handkerchief from her pocket, and as 
he thought to catch the treasure of her tears. He 
walked behind her, but she gave no heed to his near- 
ness, He tried to speak to her but no occasion would 
offer. By-and-by she was accosted by another woman ? 
poorer looking than herself, who asked her for an alms. 
Then the rejected penny was brought forth, she had 
learned humility even in her poverty, as well as the 
elder in his abundance. She gave up that penny ex- 
cusing herself saying : — " It is a' I hae or I'd gie ye 
mair." 

The lEarl hastened after her to see where she would 
stop, resolved to give her the twenty-five pounds which 
he had brought with him for the foreign missionary 
cause, but suddenly she turned into a door which 
swung back in his face behind her. It might be a 
humble place in man's estimate, for it was among the 
destitute, but it had been in the past the mother of a 
dozen of these up-town and more pretentious places. 
He entered after her, the service there was a half hour 
later, so they were both in time for a visit from another 
eider with his plate. 

He was a venerable man with the few locks which time 
had left. He was reverent as a Scotch elder of the old 
kind only can be ; he was more, he was tender, he longed 
for the dear ones " far awa,"but most of all for him whom 
the Song of Solomon voices, as drawing forth the desires 
of the aged saint, " Saw ye him whom my soul loveth ?" 
He was cleanly arrayed, for how could the man of God 
carry the treasures of his house except in linen clean, 
and hands that had never touched bribes. The poor 
woman did not attempt to put an offering on the plate, 
for she had none, but she asked him for a seat, still with 



212 

the remembrance of her discomfiture, she added, "but 
I hae nae collection." 

" Collection," said he, taking her by the hand, "come 
awa to my seat, it's you an' me, an' the likes o' us 
hungry bairns, needin' a bite, that come here an's wel- 
come.' ' 

The Earl followed after and said as he passed, " I 
have an offering for the woman, and myself as well, 
it was what I had taken for the missionary fund, but I 
thought I had found the place where the Lord wanted 
it." 

" And ye are a stranger too," said the elder, " come 
awa an' sit right doon in my seat." 

It was an old church, which had battled with sin for 
more than a century, had comforted sad and weary 
sin-sick hearts through trials that could never be 
counted by days or years. The service was as bare of 
ornaments as the walls. No organ, no choir, only a 
" dark," as the Scotch say, with a tuning-fork, but a 
greater organ started at his key-note than at Harlem 
or St. Peter's, it was a living organ, revoiced by the 
Holy Ghost in regeneration. The strains of Psalm 
and tune swelled and swayed the hearts that worshipped 
before God's earthly throne. Sometimes, not by cul- 
ture, but by intuitive perception, all was subdued as 
when the harper lays his whole hand across the throb- 
bing cords and they breathe the sweetest harmonies in 
whispers. 

There were more prayers than usual, but shorter and 
more emphatic, and direct and reverent ; both hymns 
and prayers led first up to the sermon and through the 
sermon to God. The man of God, for this is the only 
title that suite'd the man and his work, preached first to 
the understanding, and then to the conscience, and then 



243 

to the affections ; it was strong, convincing and tender. 
He began in a strange way, all his own, in a plaintive 
voice and look toward heaven almost weird like he. cried 
out, " O that I had wings of a dove, then would I fly- 
away and be at rest." Raising himself to his more 
than six feet of gaunt Scotch manhood, his face lit up 
for the first time with divine conception of the truth he 
was to utter, he cried out in tones clear and startling, 
" This text was the cry of a dead dispensation, only its 
graves are with us to this day. Decrepitude is written 
upon all its history. There is no voice any more — we 
only hearken for the whispering of the moaning winds 
in the tombs.' ' And as he said this, his voice was sub- 
dued into a whisper and there was an oppressive pause. 
And then a shout, as of triumph, that startled every 
life: "Hear what the Lord says to you men and 
women of to-day!" and then dropping his voice into 
deepest tenderness says, " Come unto me all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." 

"There's no need now, brethren, for wings to reach 
our rest. It is given for the asking, a gift free as air, 
more vital than sunshine. All we have to do is both 
negative and positive. Not to walk in the counsel of the 
ungodly, stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat 
of the scornful. And then take hold on eternal life and 
he will give you rest, he will rest, refresh, discipline and 
lead in such blessed alternations that out of them all 
rest will come to your souls. Come, come, come now, 
just as you are, take his yoke, you have now the yoke 
of sin and its galling habits, throw it off; the divine 
help is moving in your thoughts now. You know you 
ought to' do it, and would like to do it; then take his 
yoke, it is easy, and stop the now vain sentimental cry 
of a dead dispensation, ' O that I had wings like a dove, 
ihf*n x^-^,,1 i t fl^ — .,- , — a i~- -•>• T-.-.-+ ' " 



244 



This is but the merest outline, but it may suggest the 
treatment and spirit of a discourse which brought respon- 
sive answers in sighs, prayers and tears, and comfort to 
the two worshippers, strangely different in outward cir- 
cumstances, in the elder's pew. The nobleman, like the 
Ethiopian of Philip's sermon in the desert, departed a 
wiser and better man, and the poor widow whose Sab- 
bath had begun in the rejection of her penny, went her 
way to struggle in poverty and widowhood, stronger and 
holier in the trust her Lord had committed to her. 



AUSTRIA— JETSAM AND FLOTSA3L 

k UR faces are set towards the Orient. Through 
the Tyrolese Alps, the way from Zurich to Inns- 
pruck is a new one, opened but a few years ago. The 
sublimities of this part of the range have been hidden 
from the world, except through wearisome journeys by 
diligence, or on the backs of beasts, ever since the up- 
heaval of these mountains, if this was the way they 
came into existence. The practised eye, used to the 
pages of the world's rock-leaved history, will easily 
detect the formations as he passes through the deep 
cuts or tunnels which form so large a part of the route. 
They are chiefly crystalline, silurian and secondary, 
with obtruding granites and traps. These great but- 
tresses of nature's framework have mines of wealth hid 
in their gaps, seams and crevices. Iron appears almost 
everywhere, rock-salt is found near. Innspruck and 
its marble quarries are further south. The tertiary 
strata of the Swiss and Swabian plains are totally 
wanting, and only on the lower water courses are there 



245 

any recent formations found, and upon these alone is 
any fertility, while the plains seldom reach a width of 
more than half a mile. 

But the fascinations of this Tyrol range come 
from the peerless green which overs most of the hills 
from the last of May until October. It is a peculiar 
shade of green, which is not found in this blending any- 
where else in the Alps. Most of the mountains are not 
above the timber line, on which grow the greatest abun- 
dance of hard woods of almost every kind in use, the 
beech prevailing. To this display is added a luxuri- 
ant humbler growth in vines and flowering shrubs and 
floral wealth. Nature beckons ever the weary eye to 
be seduced into obliviousness of time by these miles of 
unbroken green, clad in greater variety than those for 
whose comfort and delectation they were created ; for we 
note that the heads of not a few of the intellectual and 
unintellectual gazers protrude above the capillary timber 
lines, with nothing left for their adornments but their ears 
and well-polished pates, scanty remembrance of the 
wealth of comfort and beauty of their youth. 

We are pleased with the works of man, especially 
when centuries of his masterful labors are put together. 
But God's creative designs are so vast and awful, hi3 
plans as seen in his works so grand, that the mind is 
appalled both by their stability and venerableness. 
God is not -an architect who cannot change his plans 
without endangering the unity of the whole. His plans 
comprehend all the changes needed to fulfil their pur- 
pose and existence. Some of these show that they are 
held in position by forces at which man's mind balks 
when they are called finite. But we turn away from 
the merely educational effects of these mountain won- 
ders in creating- a sense of the vastness of material 



216 

creation and resources, away from the awful, which a 
sense of their rugged grandeur inspires, away from 
the peace which they give as their loftiness, piercing the 
azure of the skies, impresses us, and soon come to the 
thought of their usefulness in a world where all things 
created include both means and ends to everlasting 
utilities. 

The Swiss chateau, with its first story plastered and 
whitewashed, while the second in natural wood, weather- 
beaten, with its porches at the second story and flat 
pitched roofs, is succeeded by another of the same kind, 
as if built on a regulation pattern. Above this again 
are other cottages until the very mountain-top is sur- 
mounted. We have counted seven of these series with 
their little farms until the last is reached, as if set to 
guard all the rest. Hours and hours as they passed on 
brought only these views of mingled sublimity, prosperity 
and thrift. But the quest of the Swiss is beyond these 
comfortable abodes. He is hardy, enterprising and dar- 
ing ; want often inspires him to the lonely sacrifices which 
we will try to describe. Men and women drive the herds 
to the mountain-tops during the summer, and stay with 
them until the fierce blasts of winter force them down. 
Alone with their flocks, with only the shepherd dogs to 
protect them against wolves and bears, they hear the 
fierce screams of the eagles which contend with them 
for empire of the mountain ranges, and the voices of the 
winds and the roar of the thunders from their mountain 
batteries. They see the. flash of the lightning glitter- 
ing from glaciers and eternal snows. They wake to the 
crash of the avalanche, whose loosened accumulations 
rush past and sometimes over the stone hut, where they 
shiver in the night chills with no fuel to mitigate their 
damps. It is to us a life so unintelligible, because so 



217 

far beyond any experience of kindred hardships, that it 
stands solitary in its unapproachable grandeur as the 
cold head of Mount Blanc, which we can see, forever 
separated in its lone realm by a diadem of virgin snow. 

We saw a little girl all alone in the Cottian Alps, in 
the late summer, who had been there with the flocks and 
the shepherd dog since May, and would not return until 
the middle of September. There is a story told among 
the Swiss of a grandfather and little grandson who had 
gone on the mountains to herd their flocks. They had 
a small chalet in which they kept a goat which supplied 
them with milk. Unlooked-for and premature storms 
overtook them, their scanty supplies gave out, and their 
fuel too, so that their only water was the melted snow. 
The milk of the goat dried up, the grandfather sickened 
and sought to cheer the child, and the ch Jd tried to save 
the grandfather by lying against his shivering form to 
give him the remaining heat of his own young life. He 
could partly warm, but could not bring back quick 
pulsations to that chilled heart. The child cried until 
his voice failed and went into a whisper. The faithful 
dog howled in vain for help over their distress until 
he died, The little boy lay all unconscious, withered 
to the bones, when his father and the neighbors 
reached him in time to save the wavering breath 
and restore him to life. 

The products of these mountains are varied and pro- 
fitable. Large crops of flax are raised, and all along 
the lawns it is spread out that the hard substance may 
decay, and thus loosen the fibre. Here we have first seen 
the green corn of our own country; we fear the frost 
will nip it, but that which will not ripen will be saved 
for fodder. Mosses abound, which are cut while seven 
or eight incheslong. Clover grows quite luxuriantly; bees 



248 

and honey are in great abundance, for this is a land of 
flowers. The air is always humid and showery. 
Throughout these valleys are churches nearly all of a 
straw-color, as if all built after a regulation pattern. 
Here the style of architecture changes from the western 
to the eastern. The belfries or cupolas are after the 
Byzantine order, showing the proximity of the Aus- 
trians to Constantinople, and perhaps, how near the 
Saracens came to possessing and cursing the valley 
of the Danube. There is something very pathetic in 
the loving care of these simple-hearted people for their 
dead. The graves in the little cemeteries have the 
cheapest possible contrivances to mark them, usually a 
board painted black, the better conditioned have iron 
and stone, but the very poor have nothing but a bou- 
quet of flowers under a drinking glass. But as nature 
is rich in summer in these smiles of heaven there are 
always fresh flowers on the graves. In the winter they 
bring the best they have ; a pretty colored feather, a bit 
of calico which has been saved from the scanty dress, 
or a piece of ribbon, or the hair from the head of the 
surviving mother, sister or wife, ingeniously wrought 
into an ornament and laid, a treasure of undying affec- 
tion, on the mound when mother earth lies frozen at 
the heart. 

The Tyrolese Alps are very grand at Innspruck. It 
is a little city, but somewhat thrifty, jammed in between 
high mountains, from which rise smoky wreaths, as if 
incense from these high altars of nature's cathedral 
was ascending forever and ever. It is damp here, 
and the temperature changes every hour ; it is a place to 
be avoided by those suffering from rheumatism, catarrh, 
or pulmonary troubles. It is a summer resort largely 
occupied by Germans, Alpine clubs, &c. It has no 



249 

particular importance at present beyond a university, 
and the meeting-place of the Diet. The raising of canary 
birds is a great industry, of which the Tyrolese once 
had a monopoly — originally they supplied the world. 
There is, as usual, a cathedral, in which are statues of 
people long dead, most of whom have relieved the world 
by their departure. But there is no uplifting power this 
side of England for women, at least none where the con- 
fines of a living Protestantism are crossed ; there is no 
honor or deference to woman, she toils in the fields, pulls 
beside the ass or dog on the streets. In Vienna she car- 
ries brick and mortar upon ladders, on head or back, to 
the masons ; she reaps the grain, mows by man's side, and 
keeps up with him in mowing, stops in her drudgeries to 
give food to her children, but dares not take time to caress 
them. She is a slave without hope, both because she is 
not appreciated and because the imperial enginery of 
war draws her husband until he is forty-five years old 
and her sons at eighteen or twenty to the armies of 
tyrants, who spend the substance of the people in prodi- 
galities, and snarl at each other like jealous dogs over 
the countries which they are destroying. 

The women must go to the field in Germany — Ger- 
many, with her boasted civilization, her supercilious 
efforts at national superiority, while her wives, daugh- 
ters and mothers are toiling in the fields, greater slaves 
than the blacks in the cotton-fields, because these 
German women know and feel their degradation, 
while the black women had known no better. Ger- 
many's "septennate" means the shackling of the women 
to the drudgeries of servile labor, so as to make the 
women support the national finances, while the men 
are forced into a service which takes the heart out of 
life and unfits them for its noblest duties. Then if Ger- 



250 

man women must go to the drudgeries of the fields the 
Austrians will aspire to no higher destinies for their 
wives, mothers, daughters and sisters. Austria must 
have a standing army because Germany has, and 
France sends her mothers and wives into the vineyards 
and corn-fields because Germany and Austria do, and 
Italy must do the same. It is the cursed policy of war 
which enslaves women and debauches the men. It will 
not cease while armed nations glower at and menace 
each other. 

There is no Moloch so destructive of virtue, man- 
hood, family relations, home and national resources as 
a standing army, and especially of a half million of 
men. There is a power in association of large bodies of 
bad men to transmit their abominations to all better 
than themselves, until an equilibrium is found, as heat 
and cold will distribute themselves equally through a 
room, the best always losing and the bad always grow- 
ing worse. Fighting battles every week, with all their 
losses, is a moral reform movement compared with the 
ingenuities of evil and the violence of its dissemination in 
the ennui of enforced idleness. The bad thoughts sown 
by skilfully adjusted and picturesque words, the 
secret abominations, the decimations of solitary sins in 
thought and deeds, the contagion passing beyond 
into the home-life, until this becomes only a rank garden 
of the soul and body, filled with destroying spores of de- 
praved and depraving plants. 

This is but a feeble and inadequate attempt to 
describe the moral and physical condition of the Aus- 
trian army as it has been described to us by those who 
are compelled to know, and this will apply, as far as it 
goes, to all Continental and Oriental armies. " It is 
only for three or seven years," says the apologist. 



251 

Grant it, but if five or seven years are taken from a 
boy of eighteen he is robbed of the best years of educa- 
tion. He will never learn any thing but soldiering, or 
will be a vagabond around cafes, claiming support and 
consideration because he has been a soldier. If the 
service were exacted of men whose habits of business 
and morals had been formed, or who had families 
and property, they might come readily back to 
the peaceable and virtuous pursuits of civil life. 
The return of so large a portion of the American 
armies after the civil war to diligence in business, 
to quiet and virtuous lives, is the lone national 
miracle of the ages. 

The Standing Army, with kindred causes of demor- 
alization, has sent its deathly virus further into Con- 
tinental national life. The disproportion between the 
number of males and females produced by this constant 
army drain is sadly apparent in the demoralization of 
women. One hundred thousand unmated women turned 
loose without the moral restraints of religion and home 
are worse than so many wolves. The unspeakable de- 
gradation of the great cities of Austria is appalling. 
The air is pestilent with the decaying of the Seventh 
Commandment. Respectable parents, as they are called 
here, will consent to degrading relations entered into with 
their daughters that they may have imagined advantages, 
which, in their poverty, they cannot give them. The 
relations of married life are not disturbed by the infi- 
delities of either husband or wife. Money here is the 
great tempter, honesty is the ruling virtue, chastity is 
in the minds of vast multitudes only a satellite. The 
conditions grow worse through the loss of power in the 
Roman Catholic Church.- It is regarded, pretty gener- 
ally, as a political organization, and the late political 



252 

role which the Pope has been playing has only weak- 
ened the influence of the Church over the popular 
mind, especially that part of it which is longing for 
liberty, and sighing out of its oppressions even for an- 
archy. "For," say they, "it can't be worse for us 
than now." The Pope, they say, is plotting with Bis- 
marck to help him rivet the shackles of servitude on 
the manhood of Germany. Seven years of worthless 
military service consumes all the life prospects of those 
in the army, and the substance of those out of it, or 
gives them to the vultures on the battle-field, for what? 
That he may gain some assistance in getting back 
his temporal rule to oppress Italy, to take the 
liberties of a people who have the best king Italy 
has ever known. But the Pope has no help nor 
consideration for the laboring man in his struggles to 
better his condition. The Roman Church is crumbling 
into moral ruin. The most observable feature to us in 
the changes of the past seventeen years is the loss of the 
grip of the Roman Catholic Church on the consciences 
of the people. In France there are twenty thousand 
churches beyond the number of available priests, and 
the military bill just passed will rob the schools for 
the three years in which their students could be fitted 
for the priesthood. Three years will unfit at least cne- 
fifth of their present priesthood, and there will be none 
except those too much crippled for military duty to take 
their places. The same fatal facts exist in Austria and 
Italy. The loss of this power upon the moral char- 
acter of the people is terrible. For any religion which 
restrains men in any thing is better than no religion. 
The confessional has lost its power as a restraint on un- 
bridled passion, and how can it be otherwise when men 
and women will come to it reeking with their abomina- 



253 

tions, and by confession relieve whatever of protesting 
conscience they may have, that like the sow that was 
washed they may return to their wallowing in the mire. 

We dare not give well-established facts of the social 
degradation of Austrian cities. Hundreds of English- 
speaking medical students come here from England and 
America, most of them from the latter country. By one 
who knows, and who would minimize rather than exag- 
gerate, we have been told of the wrecked lives of numbers 
of our young countrymen. Some are utterly lost to all 
sense of moral decency. Young girls sent here to per- 
fect their education in music are environed by the same 
dangers. Perhaps we cannot throw light on the re- 
volting subject more clearly or less offensively than to 
say that the courcezan is not excluded from average 
society. 

Last Sabbath the parents of a young woman from 
England, in good social position, possessed of consider- 
able wealth, who had come to this city to complete 
her education in music, were sending telegrams 
asking, "What has become of our daughter?" A 
Scotch gentleman living here was worrying himself 
to find her, and persuade her to give up a soul-destroy- 
ing alliance with one who was already a husband. 
Though having the assistance of the police he was baf- 
fled in every effort to reach the erring one, or to relieve 
the hearts of her grief-stricken parents. The dark 
shadows of this shame that lie over Continental cities, 
with which truth and fa'thfulness to our countrymen 
and women require us to deface this letter, do not warrant 
the conclusion that only badness rules. There are mul- 
titudes of gocd and virtuous people, as there are in 
Paris, but we may ask, "What are these among so 
many?" with State forces so terrible, so demoralizing 
that the nation itself is swayed under them. 



254 

It is with no pleasure that we write these things, but 
rather to give fathers and mothers an insight as to 
where they send their sons and daughters. We would 
prefer that a child should live in ignorance than to be 
wise with a burden of debasing sins, or even with the 
low conceptions of virtue which such an atmosphere is 
sure to give. The hospitals for foundlings are so 
managed as to be a constant temptation to the individual, 
and a deception to the community. Such institutions 
carried on in the secrecies of guilty knowledge are 
a curse to any community. They take away the re- 
sponsibilites of parentage and relieve consciences from 
a sense of guilt that might bring the guilty to repent- 
ance and reformation. 



AUSTRIA AND ITS CAPITAL. 

VIENNA is reached by rail from Innspruck 
through a valley. Its population, since the year 
1883, has increased to over one million, but the de- 
nominational ratios remain unchanged — Roman Cath- 
olics, 602,522; Protestants, 25,021; Jews, 72,588; of 
all other professions, 3,341. There are about one thou- 
sand English-speaking people, mostly Protestants. 
There are both Lutheran and Reformed churches here, 
but Protestantism lies like Lazarus in the portico of 
royal favor, and the crumbs given are the price of its 
freedom. The result is a life passed at a poor dying 
rate, for Protestantism without liberty is a " Samson 
Agonistes;" it must have both freedom of thought and 
action to prosper. Those churches which lick their salt 
from the royal hand hinder all movements from with- 



255 

out, such as McAll Missions. It is believed that they 
incite the police to the espionage which crushes every 
such effort. 

There is now in Vienna a German Methodist, a godly 
and earnest man, trying to build up a mission, but he 
can only hold his meetings in his own house with such 
people as will come in of their own accord. He dare 
not ask any to attend, and even in these meetings the 
police are present to watch and report any word that 
could be construed into a justification for his arrest. 
A zealous Scotch layman, a visitor in Vienna, started 
out from his hotel one Sabbath morning distributing 
tracts in German. He kept on until church time and 
then reported his work to the Scotch minister who is 
here under the care of the Free Church of Scotland, 
who said, " My brother, I appreciate your zeal, it is 
beautiful, but your judgment must be dethroned; it is 
a marvel that you are not now in prison, and a greater 
marvel if you are not arrested while on your way 
home." 

There is, however, this Scotch Presbyterian mission 
station which has some promise in another direction. 
It gives almost unspeakable comfort to the work of our 
Scottish brethren both of the Free and Established 
churches in the principal cities on the Continent, to be 
able to give the blessings of prayer, praise and preaching 
of the Word to the English-speaking people, and to the 
multitudes of tourists who come and go. This mission 
is sustained with special reference to the medical students 
from England and the United States, who number 
about one hundred and fifty each year, one hundred of 
whom are Americans. It was with peculiar pleasure 
that we read the petition addressed to the Free church 
of Scotland, through its committee, for a minister, and 



256 



for the permanent location of this mission. The peti- 
tion bears the names of some of our countrymen. No 
diploma of skill and learning in their profession will 
commend them more to the confidence of the good and 
pure in their profession, wherever they may be located, 
than this. As we have already indicated, sore tempta- 
tions surround these homeless young men, far from the 
restraints of their youth, but not beyond the prayers 
and help of God's people. 

There is now here a young Scotch minister, attractive 
in manner, enthusiastic in his work, the very man to care 
for these young men, who in their profession, next to 
the Christian pastor, are to hold the most sacred and 
intimate relations to our families, and who should have 
all the advantages that Christian culture and fellowship 
can give. The mission and work of this young pastor 
should be known by the parents of the young men com- 
ing here to complete their preparatory education. His 
name ought to be a household word, and coupled with 
the petitions at the family altar for the son far away. 
His name is Reid Francis Gordon. We heard him 
preach a sermon which showed him to be a thinker, as 
well as devout and ardent in his appeals to his hearers. 
In the audience, to our joyful surprise, was Senator Scott, 
of Philadelphia, and his travelling companion, Mr. 
Smith, who agreed with us in our opinion of the supe- 
rior characteristics of the sermon and services through- 
out. We have great expectations from his labors, but 
he must have a room as a central meeting-place for the 
foreign students, to be opened every night, which 
should be furnished with the best newspaper and peri- 
odical literature in the English language. In this the 
young students could meet each other socially and native 
English-speaking citizens, of whom there are some de- 



257 

lightful families in Vienna, and those who are tourists 
from their own countries as well. This place ought to 
be an intelligence office, from which they could get re- 
liable information about worthy families in which they 
could find boarding, exempt from the desperate tempta- 
tions of many pensions to which too .many have fallen 
victims. This place should be advertised in the medi- 
cal journals, and be well known to the professors of 
medical colleges, both in our own country and Great 
Britain, to which students could go from the cars on 
arriving in Vienna. Mr. Gordon is willing to under- 
take this additional work, and we hope the appeal to 
our countrymen for the few hundred dollars necessary 
to secure such a place and sustain it will not be in vain. 
We ask to this end that our religious papers of all 
denominations will join us in the effort. Contributions 
will be received at the office of the Presbyterian, for- 
warded and accounted for. No foreign work can be 
more needed or more promising than this. 

Vienna is an imposing city, in some respects, and one 
of rare beauty. It is situated in a broad valley, coming 
down from the mountains on the north, spreading out 
from the Danube and its tributaries. It is full of his- 
tory, for the world has been tangent to it at many 
points. The marks of many a conflict by which the 
world has marched on to its present condition are still 
apparent. It is still the city of Maria Theresa and her 
son, the Emperor Joseph. Their images are seen, not only 
in its history, and in the civilization of their time, but 
as the maker of the shield of Minerva wrought his own 
image into it so that even the features of the goddess 
could not hide them, so does Vienna still bear the like- 
ness of these greatest of her rulers. The modern city 
is spacious and remarkable for the magnitude of its 



258 

buildings. Where men and women will climb into the 
heavens for domicile, grand cities are possible. The 
houses occupy squares, and are six and seven stories 
high, divided into compartments which have some ad- 
vantages, but to our notion chiefly disadvantages. All 
that can be said in their favor is that they minister to 
the outward glory of Vienna. 

The new city is arranged in irregular rings, the in- 
tersecting streets converging toward St. Stephen's 
church. It abounds in " Platz' ' or places, or what we, 
in our country, would call parks. It is splendidly 
paved and brilliantly lighted. It is more Parisian than 
any other Continental city. But from beginning to end 
it exists for the Emperor. Individual life, purpose, con- 
venience or taste have not been so much as thought of. 
The wealth is in the hands of the few; the people are very 
poor, straining to keep up appearances, and the poorest 
people ia the world are of this class. They are taxed 
just as far as ingenuity in fraud and lorce can extract 
returns. Their money is a depreciated paper currency, 
and wherever this is the case high prices for living are 
the result. Yet stranger still, in the abundance of their 
harvests this year they are the poorer for it, because 
they will bring nothing to the toiler. The buildings, so 
spacious and imposing, are largely shams, so well dis- 
guised that detection requires the sharpest scrutiny. 
They are chiefly brick, stuccoed, but stuccoed with a 
skill that ought of itself to immortalize any city. There 
are but comparatively few dressed-stone buildings here, 
but there are quite a number of iron fronts. 

There are some fine palaces and three or four 
churches worth attention. The Votive Church is a copy 
of the famous Cathedral at Cologne, but smaller. It 
was the offering of gratitude to God by the people for 



209 

the escape of the Emperor Francis Joseph from the 
hands of the assassin. The corner-stone was brought 
from the Mount of Olives. We were in this magnifi- 
cent church at the time of the celebration of the birth- 
day of the Virgin. Hidden away somewhere among its 
arches was the most renowned band in the world (that 
of Strauss). Never did music so captivate us as it laid 
hold on the stony arches of the grand ceiling and shook 
them by its harmonies. It continued while high mass 
was being celebrated, the mass being left to its own 
lone silence while the people, sentimentally, were lifted 
above it, not to its profound spiritual significance, for 
this they do not understand , but in that overwhelm- 
ing effect that human harmonies, adjusted to the senses, 
can produce. We shall never lose the remembrance of 
the impressions made upon us. As we lifted our eyes a 
moment, at a pause, to our wonder and delight we re- 
cognized the presence of the well-known and loved 
form of Dr. March, of Woburn, Massachusetts, for- 
merly of Philadelphia, who seemed as much enslaved to 
his environment as ourselves. 

The history of Austria has been largely bound to 
one family tree, known as the Hapsburg, originally of 
Swiss origin, of the canton of Aargau. Albert IV. 
laid the foundation of the future glory of this house. 
He left sons, the eldest of whom was Rudolph I., of 
Austria, who greatly increased the possessions and 
power of the family. They have ruled since the thir- 
teenth century, sometimes well, much oftener they have 
been cruel, extravagant, tyrannical and blood-thirsty. 
Their remains lie about loose in Austria, Switzer- 
land and Italy. In three of the churches in Vienna 
are the relics of these saints and monsters. Their 
hearts are in silver vases in the Church of St. Augus- 



260 

tine. Their bodies are in the vault of the Church of 
the Capucines. The cost of the sarcophagi would im- 
poverish a nation. Magnificent and artistic in execution 
would poorly express their beauty. Some of these are of 
solid silver, weighing, from their appearance, well-nigh 
a ton. Silver sarcophagi, trappings of royalty doomed 
to the cellar and its chilly damps, this is the ultimatum 
of human greatness. 

The saddest of these monuments is that of Maxi- 
milian, the gentle, unsuspecting, weak victim of the 
intrigues of Napoleon III. against Mexico as the base 
of operations against the southern part of our own coun- 
try. Napoleon deserted him when the contest with the 
South had ended and he had received intimations that 
the remaining armies of both could be arrayed against 
him. Maximilian met his fate like a hero. His poor 
wife, Carlotta, sister of the King of Belgium, has been 
demented ever since. There is another pair lying here 
side-by-side whose lifeless forms unfold a history 
of infamies wrought to accomplish man's designs. 
These are the Empress Maria Louisa, second wife of 
the great Napoleon, for whom he divorced Josephine, 
and their young son, the Duke of Reichstadt, in whom 
were centered all the guilty ambitions of his father for 
the establishment of a Napoleonic dynasty. 

There are some eminences near the city which com- 
mand its outlines, and one of the mexplainable things, 
in this connection, is how a million of people can 
dwell in so limited a space. The area does not appear 
to be more than two-thirds of that of New York city. 
But we suppose it is explained by the fact that the peo- 
ple live in the clouds, or live higher up in the world 
than Philadelphians. From the wooded heights of the 
Kaalenberg the valley of the Danube lies like a pic- 



261 

ture. Beyond, upon a promontory, is the tower where 
Richard Creur de Lion was imprisoned, and where he 
was at last discovered by his servant and friend, who, 
in the garb of a minstrel, determined to sing his familiar 
songs under every castle wi ^dow until his master should 
be found. Upon the left bank of the Danube the bat- 
tles of Aspern, Essling and Wagram were fought. 
Here also was decided the limit of Saracen aggression 
in Europe. So that we can say, in looking upon this 
valley, that here the destinies of Europe were shaped, 
and imagination cannot conceive the changes that 
would have been wrought had the tide of that day's 
victory been turned in favor of the mauraders. 

The political condition of Austria is one of quiet 
fear, or perhaps the result of subduing fear. All over 
Europe there is a deepening impression that the nations 
are quaking over the beginnings of new destinies. Bo- 
fore the century is out new maps will have to be made 
with more or fewer kingdoms upon them. Austria 
must be on the border of the scene of conflict ; she must 
be in it. It is now very much as when the Saracen 
started on his career ; who could set bounds to his con- 
quest? The Saracen has been beaten and driven back 
to his deserts, but the locusts are still breeding there 
for other devastations. The question now is, Shall the 
East, by Russia, dominate tie West, and it is a moment- 
ous question, on account of which men's hearts are fail- 
ing them through fear — the Western nations are follow- 
ing the strange injunction of the great Master to the 
apostles, " He that hath no sword, let him sell his gar- 
ment and buy one." 

Each nation is draining its vital resources and turn- 
ing them into armies. Debt and its consequent poverties 
will soon attain universal empire. The Austrians are 



262 

a quiet people, who have never drawn a free breath, 
and only know what liberty is by their instincts, and 
by what they have heard of it from others. France is 
turbulent because the people have tasted its sweets and 
have been intoxicated. But it is not so here. The 
empire is governed by its army ; for the empire, except 
its aged, crippled and women and children, is in the 
army. It is true there are legislative bodies and par- 
ties, but the Imperial policy is to so balance these par- 
ties that they shall nullify each other. If one grows a 
little stronger and becomes troublesome on this account 
the government will show favor to some other, until 
matters are reduced to equilibrium. So by pitting one 
against the other no progress is made, except by the 
Emperor Joseph, who is popular with his people, and 
is, compared with some of his predecessors, conserva- 
tive, rather keeping out of troubles than conquering, 
and then utilizing his victory for the aggrandizement of 
his empire. 

At this time there is trouble feared because of the 
determination of Prince Ferdinand, who has a palace 
in Vienna, to play king awhile in Bulgaria. A mad- 
der movement would be hard even to imagine. He 
has no supporters whose hands appear above the mys- 
terious shadows which obscure all. There is a deal of 
love making between Austria and Prussia, but no 
heart affection. Austria has not forgotten any more 
than France the drubbing and robbing she received 
from Bismarck in 1866 or 1868. She has either more 
policy, or self-control, or less courage than France. 
We incline to the latter. These Emporers coquette be- 
cause they do not know what else to do but dissemble. 
Joseph is afraid to offend Germany and Bismarck, and 
yet he has no more reason to trust Bismarck's sincerity 



263 



than that of any other public robber. It would be 
suicidal for Austria to go to war now, as her money is 
at a frightful discount. But she is no worse off, in 
this respect, than Russia, and there are always war 
resources enough in this sinful world. The opinion of 
Europe is that the great contest to settle the national 
political and economic destinies of the Continent for 
the next century must be fought on the Lower Danube. 
It is the only spot where England can fight with both 
armies, military and naval. Turkey will have to fight 
here, or be swallowed up. Hungary- Austria will fight 
for her borders and to settle who shall be her neighbors. 
France will fight England and her allies, on the side of 
Russia, if Prussian-Germany will let her alone while 
she is doing it. 



THE GREAT PLAINS OF THE DANUBE. 

THE Danube is not unlike the Lower Mississippi, 
muddy, but of an ashen color, rapid and full of 
sand-bars. The valleys are great plains, the boun- 
daries of which lie beyond vision, in some places thirty or 
forty miles wide, then rising into uplands which stretch 
out until they pass into mountains. These plains are 
as fertile as the best Lower Mississippi bottoms. The 
soil is a black loam, with sufficient sand in it to keep it 
always porous, and this lies on a sub-soil of red clay. 
They are covered with grain and grass of every kind. 
The yield of wheat is enormous. The more we see of 
the wheat resources of Europe the more anxious do we 
feel for our own future wheat products, for unless there 
should be a nearly universal failure here, or great wars 



264 



here, no foreign demand will exist sufficient to put 
wheat up again to a profitable price to the producer. 
This Danubian valley would itself, if well-tilled, sup- 
ply one-half of any extra demand of Europe. 

As we are passing over territory little known to most 
of our countrymen we shall go into somewhat detailed 
descriptions of its appearance, its peoples and products. 
One of these great plains, stretching on both sides of 
the river, from the hill of Bisamberg to the mouth of 
the March, and from the margin of the river to the foot 
of the Hohenleuthen hills, is called Marchfield, and 
was the scene of the battle and victory of Rudolph of 
Hapsburg over Ottocar of Bohemia, which laid the foun- 
dation of the Austrian empire. Here too were fought 
the three battles of Aspern, Esslingen and Wagram. 
Aspern and Esslingen were made famous in history on 
the 21st and 22d of May, 1809, by the temporary 
defeat of Napoleon I. by Archduke Charles. Aspern 
was reduced to ashes, but a new city rose out of the 
ruins, and only a few marks remain of these bloody 
days. Napoleon, however, crossed in July lower down, 
and gained the decisive victory of Wagram. The Aus- 
trians were surprised and beaten by a feint by which 
he turned Charles' left flank, and the result is known 
in the transient splendor of that destructive meteor 
which came so quickly into the political sky of Europ9 
and went out a:, quickly into everlasting darkness. 
Within sight is a spot where was perpetrated one of 
those many infamous acts which cling like warts to the 
memory of the Hapsburgs. This was the snubbing by 
the detestable ingrate Leopold of John Sobieski, the 
Polish hero. After he and the Duke of Lorraine had 
raised the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683 and 
saved his infamous head and crown, he held a consulta- 



265 

tion as to whether his kingship should speak to the 
great Pole. Said he, at last, " In what manner shall I 
meet him?" Lorraine, disgusted at his quibblings, 
said, "With open arms, of course." Leopold could 
not get over that chasm, for royal weaklings, between 
an Emperor of the blood and an elective monarch, and 
Sobieski received a formal embrace. There is a stone 
raised to commemorate this event, a monument to 
royal infamy on the one side, and universal historical 
and national disgust on the other. 

We are now in Hungary, a country not as well- 
known by the nations as it deserves. Its histories are 
full of heroisms and its lists of the great are long and 
illustrious. Its people are generally large, good-look- 
ing, industrious and chivalrous. It is more like Ire- 
land in the characteristics of its people than any other 
country. Talented and turbulent, they have failed 
because they could not control themselves in their 
decisive hour3. Ever dreaming of independence, ever 
recklessly sacrificing blood and treasures, and even in 
servitude, the greater because of their useless bravery, 
they became an object of passing interest in our country 
perhaps thirty years ago, through the presence and elo- 
quence of Louis Kossuth, the exiled patriot and orator. 
With all the disadvantages of foreign birth, he learned 
a language which had no affinities with his own by the 
aid only of the works of Shakspeare. This he did 
while in a prison which is scarcely out of sight of where 
we write. He so perfectly mastered the English 
tongue that he swayed the minds and feelings of our 
countrymen, not only by his passionate eloquence, but 
by his elegant diction as well, as no foreigner ever has 
clone in all the years of our national history. The coun- 
try in which we now are and from whose capital we write 



266 

was Kossuth's country. The hero still lives an exile in 
Turin, full of years, but the spirit of patriotism burns 
unblown. 

Hungary is the country of " tongue products." The 
men are all eloquent, their national assemblies are de- 
bating societies, where all movements are born on the 
breath of national oratory. A people poetic, rash, 
brave, and as restless as a magnetic needle in presence 
of the loadstone; a people of boundless possibilities, 
which they spill out as water on the ground. We have 
a false idea of them from the degraded, quarrelsome 
and vagrant crowds which come into our mining dis- 
tricts, but who no more represent the Hungarians 
than the bog trotter from Ireland represents the cul- 
tured and elegant people who command our enthusiasm 
in her towns and cities and on her estates. 

The Hungarians have a good system of State schools, 
Academies and Universities. It has been our singular 
good fortune to travel during the fete seasons of the 
several nations in our way. We saw all England at 
the Queen's Jubilee, were in France at the fetes of the 
14th of July, in Austria at the celebration of the 
Ascension of the Virgin, and now in Hungary in the 
festivities of St. Stephen, at which there were not far 
from fifty thousand people on the streets and in the 
parks from all over the country. These would aver- 
age in good looks, dress and intelligence any similar 
number from the centre of Pennsylvania. But withal 
there came sad reflections on the past and forebodings 
for the future, growing out of the fact that every ten 
or twelve feet apart, around their parks, were soldiers 
with sabre bayonets, and on the streets, with the crowds, 
were mounted police. 

■ The people are restless under their present political 
alliance with Austria. It was the best they could do, 



267 



and they accepted it as such, but it is not all they want, 
nor all they will have. The Hungarians have more 
manliness than the Austrians, who do not dream of any 
thing as their own. In Austria, as in Prussia, every 
thing is for the Kaiser, or Emperor. But in Hungary 
manhood and ideal liberty have never been surren- 
dered. The Imperial government has to d.fer to them. 
A Hungarian will correct one ' who speaks of Francis 
Joseph as his Emperor, "No, he is our king," and 
he must live certain stipulated months in the Royal 
Palace at Buda Pesth. The Huugarian army cannot 
be moved without consent of the Parliament, but still 
they have but little liberty, and the reason is they do 
not know what it is. There is an espionage upon the 
people all the time, religious and civil ; the government 
of Austria throughout is meddling, small-hearted and 
contemptible in policy. But while the people in Hun- 
gary are high-spirited, chivalrous and brave they do 
not hold fast to their purposes, but are too vacillating 
to gain substantial victories. The best illustration of 
the Hungarian patiiotism was in their response to the 
appeal of Maria Theresa at the commencement of her 
reign in 1741, when assailed by every possible foe on 
all sides, beleagued even in her capital by internal 
enemies, deserted by all her allies, except England, 
she was about to receive the deputation of the Hun- 
garian estates, she arrayed herself in deep mourning, in 
the Hungarian garb, with the crown of St. Stephen on 
her head and girded with his sword. She held her 
babe in her arms. She told her grievances in a Latin 
speech, depicting to their impressible and fiery natures 
the dangers which threatened her kingdom, and throw- 
ing herself on the fidelity of her Hungarian subjects, 
and demanded their assistance. 



268 

The whole scene, so dramatic and pathetic, with the 
beauty and womanliness of the Queen, appealed to the 
veneration of the people by the sword and crown of St. 
Stephen. It appealed to their sentimentality by the 
Hungarian grief-associated drapery, which she wore, as 
well as by the helplessness of the infant at her breast. 
In an instant every hand was on a hilt and every 
sword gleaming from its scabbard, and by an irresisti- 
ble impulse of passion, blind but resistless, " Moriamur 
pro rege nostra Maria Theresa." They swore to de- 
fend her rights to the last drop of their blood, and 
while hot with passion repaired to the Diet, voted lib- 
eral supplies, and summoned the wild tribes from the 
remotest corners of the kingdom to rally around her 
standard. Creates and Pandours carried terror to the 
furthest extremity of the Continent. But this ended 
all successful efforts of public uprisings ever since, they 
have only boded disaster. The ruins of the palace, in 
which this dramatic scene occurred, still remain on a 
hill overlooking Pressburgh, and are as much a monu- 
ment to the character of this- people as to the Queen, 
who knew so well how to handle the Hungarian Irish 
of her realm. 

To return to a general description of the country 
and its resources, one of the strange things to the ob- 
server is the almost interminable length of the fields. 
We suppose the land must belong to great estates in 
bodies of thousands of acres or this would not be possi- 
ble. We passed by fields being ploughed where the 
furrows would be from three to four miles long. What 
was still more interesting were the Hungarian oxen, the 
most splendid creatures we have ever seen, tall as an 
ordinary horse, white or cream- colored, with horns two 
and a half feet long and from two and a half to three 



209 

feet between the tips. They walk like horses ; in one 
field were twenty-seven yokes of white oxen, one after 
another ploughing. They are used singly also, in 
almost every kind of work where one horse would be 
employed. The finest herds of cattle, hogs and sheep 
everywhere revel in the abundant pastures of these 
great Danubian plains. The horses are the best in 
Europe. The government has great farms of thou- 
sands of acres where only Arabian horses of pure blood 
are bred, mixed blood can be seen and the Arabian 
characteristics easily pointed out in the great draft 
horses on the street, and finer horses were never seen 
than those in the cavalry service. Fast driving is a 
national passion. "Cabby" will give his passenger 
the worth of his money even if he is engaged by the 
hour. He makes one's head swim as he whizzes 
his wheels around the corners, and this is the only 
place in the world where he will drive as rapidly by 
the hour as by "the course." 

There is a singular fact in regard to the English 
living in Austria. One is inquisitive to know what 
alienates any considerable portion of any country from 
the land of their birth. The English women come into 
Austria in great numbers as governesses in royal and 
wealthy families, for at present it is stylish and the de- 
sirable thing to speak English. The men from Eng- 
land are generally horse-jockeys. Austria is the great- 
est racing country now in the world, other countries 
trot horses, but here there is a passion among high and 
low for running them, and in this, as in many other better 
things, the Englishman is ahead. There are great race 
tracks fitted up in the extravagances of wasteful wealth 
in both Austria and Hungary, at which men, women 
and children bet from a kreutaer to thousands of florins, 



270 

and of course, all the demoralizations which proceed 
therefrom exist. A Scotch minister informed us that 
he desired to have a jubilee service in honor of the 
Queen of Britain in Buda Pesth, the capital of Hungary, 
but nearly every body had gone for the summer from 
the ministry and legations. He feared it would be a slim 
affair, but to his astonishment all the old and superanu- 
ated English residents here turned out, and the gov- 
ernesses came, and the rest of the audience was largely 
made up of "jockeys" who had turned out to sing 
" God Save the Queen." 

The northern and eastern portions of Hungary are 
occupied by the Carpathian mountains. The grandest 
part in natural mountain display is in Transylvania. 
Buda is an old city, now containing nearly one hundred 
thousand people. It was under the domination of the 
Turks for a century and a half. It has hot sulphur 
springs, a fortress and a palace and a Gothic church, 
converted by the Turks into a Mosque. This city sits 
like a queen on a mountain-side and is connected with 
Pesth by a suspension bridge. Beside the carriage-road 
up to the fortress there are several long nights of steps; 
upon one of these a conflict took place in 1849 between 
the Imperialists and Eevolutionists, and seven hundred 
bodies were taken from the place a few days after. The 
royal palace, built in the reign of Charles VI., was de- 
stroyed by a bombardment in 1849, but is now restored in 
great splendor. Here the royal crownjewels are deposited, 
in which collection are the sceptre, sword and mantle 
of St. Stephen, which are regarded as the Palladium 
of the State, and upon the possession of which it is be- 
lieved the fate of the kingdom depends. The removal 
of these to Vienna by Joseph II. alienated from him 
the hearts of his Hungarian subjects, who suspected him 



271 

of purposes against the independence of Hungary. The 
two arched ribs of the crown are superstitiously believed 
to have been made by angels and given to St. Stephen, 
in A. D., 1000, when Christianity was established in 
Hungary by Pope Sylvester II. When removed for 
coronations it was packed in an iron case and carefully 
guarded night and day. In the struggles of 1849 it 
was taken away by Kossuth and hidden in the ground 
near Orsova and recovered only in 1853. 

Pesth, on the opposite side of the river, is one of the 
oldest towns outside the history of its sister, with which 
it is now joined. It is now the finest and most beau- 
tiful in architectural structure, and the most flourishing 
commercial city in Hungary, with wide streets and 
parks. The object of hatred and humiliation to the 
patriotic Hungarians is the "Barracks," which they 
have been anxious to tear away, and will soon succeed. 
It is an enormous building, four stories high with under- 
ground dungeons, built by Joseph in 1786, and because 
of these dungeons and the iron rings in the walls and 
pillars it was believed to be for the imprisonment of 
refractory Hungarian nobles. In it the patriots of the 
revolution pined, and many were placed standing 
against the walls and shot without trial. Pesth was 
bombarded in the contest of 1849, and nearly destroyed, 
but it has rallied and is now one of the most beautiful 
in all Europe. The two cities are joined as the capital 
of the nation under the name of Buda Pesth. 

On the wharves, the stevedores, or longshoremen as 
they would be called in New York, are Sclavs, low speci- 
mens of humanity in appearance, who indicate the varied 
character of the inhabitants from the highest to the 
lowest extremes. These Sclavs are, however, industrious, 
economical and thrifty. There is a continuation of the 



272 



eastern European servility of the women in the most 
loathsome drudgeries. They make the mortar, carry 
up brick and plaster, pull great loads on hand-wagons, 
often working along side of great dogs — for dogs are 
not idlers in this country. Carriages are often drawn 
by one horse, hitched to the side of the pole ; thus, if 
necessary, two horses or one can be used, and what is 
quite as surprising the one gets on about as well on one 
side as if he was in shafts. 

The tourist will be struck with the appearance of the 
dominant race, in which are race marks not seen in any 
other people, and which partitions them off from all 
others. We hardly ever see a people whose language 
does not suggest likeness to other languages. The 
Magyars are totally distinct in features and language 
from all their neighbors, the Germans on the one side 
and the Sclavs on the other. Their lingual kinship 
must be sought among the Turcomans, and is, perhaps, 
nearer that of Finland than any other in Europe. This 
Hungarian country has a destiny before it which will 
enliven the pages of future history, whether for its 
political and moral betterment is a sealed secret for the 
coming ages. In the conflict pending in Bulgaria, in 
which the nations must engage, Hungary will determine 
the policy of Austria ; her borders will first be in danger 
and her territory invaded. In the contest last spring, 
which came so near an issue, Hungary took the leading 
part ; Austria in the coming contest, if she holds to- 
gether, must protect the south-eastern interests of her 
empire. If she cannot reach the sea- except under the 
guns of Russian fortresses she is undone. If Russia 
gets Bulgaria, then Moldavia and TV allachia will be en- 
dangered, and if Constantinople should go to Russia, 
Austria might as well surrender. She would be garroted j 



27c 



so, more than England, is Austria bound to antagonize 
Russia. The nations concerned are chronically nervous, 
and Bulgaria is so wilful and persistent that any hour 
may bring the conflict. 



RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF AUSTRO-EUNGARY. 

IN Hungary are three millions of nominal Protest- 
ants — there are two thousand Reformed, that is to say 
Calvinist churches, and nine hundred Lutheran. They 
are recognized by the State and receive its aid, and of 
course, are under its asphyxiating power, and that they 
live is about all that can be said. They make no pro- 
gress in numbers nor in power. They have no Foreign 
Missions, but do a little to help scattered and weak con- 
gregations. There is some change for the better of 
an evangelical character in their young ministers, 
especially those who study theology in Scotland, and 
the number of these is increasing. These young men 
are preaching to the conscience and heart and arous- 
ing men and women both to wrath and piety, a fact 
which freshens the point to a story long ago heard of a 
fossil Lutheran church in Pennsylvania where they had 
been instructed, but not shaken up. When a young 
preacher came, who did not make much distinction in 
favor of dead professors of religion, in his zeal for their 
spiritual life he would forget and call them all sinners. 
The consistory took it as personal, and one of the num- 
ber called on him to correct his absurd opinions and 
expostulate against such charges. Said he, " Dominie, 
you calls us all sinners, I bees no sinner, I bees on^ 
Lutheran." 



274 

There are good roots in Hungary, but they ought to 
have more lively branches and more abundant fruits. 
There are foreign efforts being made toward resuscita- 
tion, but the Protestant churches are nervous and dis- 
trusting, and not half so fearful of cleadness as of excite- 
ments — less afraid of death than of resurrection. There 
have been efforts made in Prague, that spot that is illus- 
trious in heaven for its martyr cries of " How long' ' 
from under the throne, and weary hearts of earth are 
asking how long does it take martyr seed to germinate. 
The Scotch Free Church has a mission which is affiliated 
with the Keformed Church of Bohemia, but it has not 
yet accomplished much, though it is believed that pros- 
pects are brightening. The Congregationalists of our 
country have done better, perhaps, for being indepen- 
dent in their operations. What y e have said about the 
brethren of the Reformed and Lutheran Churches has 
not been in a critical or uncharitable spirit, for there 
would be no theme which could inspire us like the knowl- 
edge that these glorious witnessing churches were bound- 
ing into life and progress. Considering the fact that their 
life is fettered by the government shackles of ages, they 
doubtless are doing as well as could be expected even 
in holding their own. 

The anti-Semitic movement in Germany, Austria and 
Hungary presents a question which must be met and 
considered in the problem of the relations of the Jews 
to Christianity. It seems to be agreed upon on all sides 
that the Jew must be a quantity in the consummation at 
least of the work of Christianity on earth, but from 
present indications the conversion of the Jews by ordi- 
nary spiritual means will be about the last thing before 
the millennium. The anti-Semitic movement is nothing 
strange, the Jew is responsible for it. He is the uni- 



275 

versal " supplanter," and will live with nobody without 
exasperating, grasping unscrupulousness and trickery ; 
by nature be will wear out bis friends, and witb all 
else be is a constitutional tyrant to all people but bis 
own. Tbis is tbe verdict written against bim every- 
where ; how much of it is sheer prejudice and envy at 
his business prosperity we must leave those who know 
Jew and Gentile best to judge. Tbe present race excite- 
ment broke out in Berlin in the form of an alarm at 
the sway of the Jews, and their antagonisms to the 
Protestant Christianity which had not given them any 
position better than one in a Ghecto. The secular press 
of Berlin is in their hands, and its influence was thought 
to be not only negatively, but positively against the re- 
ligion of the country, in the form of infidel and atheistic 
attacks. The Court Preacher Stocker, of Berlin, com- 
menced the movement against what he regarded as 
their systematic hostility, which to the surprise of all 
became incident to a deep evangelical movement 
throughout Berlin. Efforts have also been made to 
arouse the multitudes in the church to a higher form 
and development of Christian life as against all pre- 
vailing irreligion, and to provide greater church accom- 
modations as well. This has been of great service to 
the cause of vital religion in Berlin and to some extent 
throughout Germany. The hatred to the Jew was lost 
sight of in a general awakening to old spiritual destitu- 
tions, and to the hostility which had been aroused against 
the Church daring its frigid condition. But the purely 
anti-Semitic sentiment spread into Austria, and espe- 
cially into Hungary, intensified in a trial in which cer- 
tain Jews were charged with being concerned in the slay- 
ing of a child and the use of its. blood in their Easter ser- 
vice, which had really no substantial ground as an ac- 



276 

cusation. But the conviction is widespread among the 
common people in Hungary that the Jews do use Chris- 
tian blood in this service. It has taken such a hold 
here as to have started a political party which has a 
dozen members in Parliament. But while this senti- 
ment has developed, the reaction which usually comes 
from such movements on the sympathetic side has 
aroused throughout Europe the anxious inquiry, Can 
any thing be done towards Christianizing the Jews? and 
whether it is not more consonant with the spirit and 
mission of Christianity to reach them by greater efforts 
to convince, and win them by the spirit of loving en- 
deavor in their behalf. 

The movement which set in so adversely and threat- 
ened a curtailment of their civil rights, and perhaps, 
persecution, has warmed into life many of the old 
agencies in their behalf, and brought into existence new 
ones — some of these are purely sentimental, others on 
the extreme of Adventism, &c. Those who hold to the 
necessity of their national return to Palestine as neces- 
sary to the completion of their ideas of the second advent 
began to theorize as to how the control of Palestine 
could be obtained. Others concerned themselves more 
about the conversion of this race rather than about 
material and political state in the promised land. Pro- 
phecies are being rearranged and reinterpreted, other 
portions of the Scripture statements readjusted, and a 
new prophetic impulse given to the work. Others are 
moved by the facts of the relations of the Jews to the 
kingdom of God in all ages of man's history, and the ob- 
ligations of Christianity to the Jews through the Saviour 
of the world, and through the apostles who reinvigo rated 
hy preaching the death and resurrection of Christ the 
only religion that the world had ever known which had 



277 

been of any service to the race. Others still were stirred 
because the Jew is a brother man without a Saviour, 
and a suffering man through centuries on account 01 
this loss. 

The seven-day Baptists are at work in upturning the 
Christian Sabbath, and substituting the Jewish Sabbath. 
Their discussions in their newspapers are to be found in 
bundles in most of the hotels, and they have enlisted sev- 
eral men of some distinction in the churches to advocate 
their views. These seven day Baptists are also pretty 
generally Adventists, and their efforts terminate ulti- 
mately on the Jews, There is, therefore, not only a move- 
ment against the Jews, but for them, and by them. There 
is a remarkable movement by them in Russia, under 
the direction of the eloquent lawyer Rabinowitz, from 
whose discourses we quoted largely in a letter from 
London. There is, at least, an uncommon restlessness 
among them, and they are in constant fear as to what 
may be the next surprise in departures from their faith. 
There is a great deal of study and quiet inquiry as to 
Avhat these things mean, and they are far more easily 
approached on the subject than in years past. 

Forty years ago, in the palace which crowns a high 
hill in Buda, overlooking the beautiful Danube and 
the city of Pesth, lived the Archduchess Maria Doro- 
thea, the wife of the uncle of the present Emperor. She 
was a Protestant, the mother of the present Queen of 
Belgium, and worthy to be the mother of rulers of 
nations. She was a devout Christian, in whose heart 
lived that ideal of Christian life which can withstand 
all the demoralization of courts. She had learned to 
follow her Lord in childhood, and never departed from 
it in womanhood and old age. Her heart was grieved 
at the moral degradations of the people, which the 



278 

Papacy was either careless or helpless to restrain, and 
she longed for the gospel as she had heard it in her 
youth, but of this she had no hope, unless God would 
work it out in his own oft mysterious way. So at a 
window about midway in the palace, overlooking the 
cities given to the deep degradations of unrestrained 
moral wickedness, she prayed that God would send em- 
bassadors of his grace. 

As often as the moral destitutions of the land rose like 
the chilly and malarious mists of the Danube, in wreaths 
before her, the incense of her devotion was offered, she 
pleading all alone, the hand of the creature on the arm 01 
the Almighty, that he would send a minister of his Word 
to preach in Buda Pesth. Her faith is monumental, 
for during seven long, disappointing, wearying years 
she renewed her hopes by her prayers before the object 
of her desire seemed even in the direction of realiza- 
tion. And the way was more wonderful, if possible, 
than the faith that poured its unseen strength in seven 
years of unanswered prayers. In Scotland, before the 
Disruption, other hearts were hoping and praying that 
God, who had commanded " Go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel to every creature," and had 
promised his presence in both hope and effort, would 
indicate a field of labor where this promise might be 
realized. It took the form of a proposal to start a 
mission to the Jews. 

The sainted McCheyne, Dr. Keith, the author of 
the well-known book on the Prophecies, and Dr. An- 
drew Bonar started on a tour of inspection in quest of 
the place for the carrying out this purpose of prayer in 
Scotland. They went to Palestine, and on their return 
iourney stopped, for some reason not known to us, at 
Buda Pesth. On one of the streets Dr. Keith swooned 



away and was carried unconscious into tke " Queen of 
England Hotel," where lie sunk so rapidly that all 
hope was abandoned of his recovery, and the word was 
on the streets that he was dead. The news of the dying 
condition of an English clergyman reached the ears of 
the good Archduchess, who had so long prayed for the 
coming of a Protestant minister to Buda Pesth. She 
sent word to the hotel, his room being in sight of 
the window at which she had almost wearied heaven, 
that the physicians should leave nothing undone to save 
his life. The message came after they had abandoned 
his case and he was thought to be actually dead, and 
some preparation had been made for the grave. The 
word from the palace started them into making what 
they believed were utterly vain efforts only to please 
the Duchess. They gave stimulants, applied friction, 
poured hot wax on his breast, and continued other 
means until they discovered that as they held the 
lighted taper before his lips the flame wavered. The 
physician put his mouth near to the ear of the appar- 
ently dead man and asked, " Dr. Keith, are you dead?" 
The answer came, "Not dead.". He was unable to 
speak again for many days, but slowly gained and in 
about two weeks full consciousness returned, and it was 
all to him as a dream. 

The Archduchess visited him and the object of their 
journey was explained, when she begged that the pro- 
posed mission should be located in Buda Pesth, in an- 
swer to her prayers. It was begun, and in sight of the 
very window at which she had so long begged that 
God would intercede in behalf of her people and send 
the gospel in its simplicity and purity to their homes. 
She promised to help and protect it to the utmost of her 
power, and as long as she lived gave it her full support. 



280 

This mission Las had God's special favor in answer, no 
doubt, to the prayers of the devout hearts founding it. 
Dr. Keith has gone to his rest, as has the sainted Arch- 
duchess. The devout McCheyne has gone also to his 
reward and his works have been following him for more 
than a quarter of a century. Nearly if not all of those 
interested at the beginning of this work are gone, but 
the work abides, and its harvestings are apparent. 
The Austrian government did not mean to be outgen- 
eraled by a woman's prayers into another innovation of 
this kind, and on account of the influence of this Arch- 
duchess they decreed that no Protestant should ever 
be united in marriage to the ruling house again, and 
this ended the royalty which in a better kingdom " shall 
walk in white, for it is worthy." 

This mission work to the Jews has gone on, and while 
the numbers embracing Christianity have not been 
great, nor have these converts been all that was ex- 
pected, still the work viewed in its past, in its pres- 
ent, and as estimated for its future has been satisfac- 
tory in its average results. The Jews are the hardest 
people on the earth to win to Christ. There is 
first intense race pride to be humbled before they will 
accept in any place of superiority the lowliest of their 
race, Christ Jesus. Caste distinctions are not stronger 
in India than with the Jews. Then they have wronged 
their own kinsman, and men who wrong their own 
without cause are the slowest to forgive. Then they 
have been persecuted on account of Him, and this has 
saturated their natures with malignity. They are a peo- 
ple who will tolerate only absolute conformity of opin- 
ion to tradition. The moment a Jew departs from pre- 
vailing regulation opinion among them he is persecuted, 

that there is no individuality in religious belief. The 



281 

individual is no more than a grain of sand in a heap, and 
to be independent is to be ostracized and tormented by 
Jewish ingenuity, which is infernal, and always has 
been so. 

When they were supreme in their own country and 
kingdom their own prophets gave them this abomi- 
nable character. Hence, the Hottentots are more 
easily reached, for, knowing nothing of Christianity, 
they can be taught, but the Jew thinks he knows 
every thing and that those who would teach him 
are dogs and ignorant, and can neither instruct him nor 
show him any thing better than he possesses. The 
trouble with the Jew is that if his long-expected Mes- 
siah should come and attempt to build up a kingdom 
on any other basis, or for any other purpose than 
that established by the leaders of public thought 
among them, they would crucify him, and cast 
him out into Gehenna. The Jew worships only 
himself, and only turns from himself to curse the 
publican who dares to confess even his sins to the God 
of the Jews. These are the leading characteristics of the 
race. We do not mean that this is the universal con- 
dition, for there are multitudes of the devout and God- 
fearing among them. But these are race-marks, which 
have been and will be conquered by God's grace, but 
in human estimates they make the work harder than 
missions to any other people. Nor do we say these 
things justifying in any way the persecutions which 
they have suffered, chiefly by the Roman Catholic 
Church, but we do say that these characteristics have 
often provoked it, and will do it again. Protestant 
Christianity has in the main labored to mitigate the 
sufferings of the Israelite. 

A rabbi, who was espousing Christianity in this coun- 
try, in an argument urged the Jews to receive the New 



282 

Testament teachings as all their own and only their 
own. He asked them why they should "reject the 
jewel even if it were set in a swine's snout." The over- 
whelming pride and contempt of the race for any thing 
which is not essentially their own is the cause of most 
of their calamities. This explains the difficulty of any 
work in their behalf ; and yet such is the power of God's 
grace working through the unselfish labors and denials 
of the missionaries that numbers of this disdainful peo- 
ple have been won to their long-rejected Saviour, and 
are humbly working and enduring the persecutions of 
men and women of their own blood. 



RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF AUSTRO-HUNGARY. 
WORK AMONG THE JEWS. 

THE work for the Jews in Buda Pesth is now under 
the direction of the Rev. Andrew Moody, a man 
of deep and earnest piety, who has a wonderful gift of 
tongues. He preached and taught seven years in Prague, 
and then came to Buda Pesth, acquired the Hungarian 
language, very difficult because akin to none, so well 
that though a Scotchman, he would be taken for 
a native. He preaches every Sabbath in German 
and English. He is junior pastor, associated with the 
venerable Dr. Koenig in the pastorate of the German- 
speaking church. We heard Rev. Mr. Moody preach, 
and as far as we could understand it was a first-rate 
sermon upon the text, "By the grace of God I am 
what I am," &c, to which the congregation listened 
with great attention, which is always a test of a ser- 
mon's power. 



283 

The church building is a modern one, built of brick, 
substantial and handsome, and belongs to the congre- 
gation, which was largely assisted in its building from 
Scotland, through the efforts of Rev. Mr. Moody. 
There is a school building near the church, admirably 
located and growing in value, which belongs to the 
Free Church of Scotland, in which four hundred 
children are taught during the week. One-half of these 
are children of Jews, who put no restrictions on the mis- 
sionaries in their Christian teachings, so that these chil- 
dren are taught out of the Scriptures of the IsTew and Old 
Testaments every day and are prayed for and taught to 
pray themselves. The practical and relative duties of 
religion are also impressed upon them. Many of these 
Jewish scholars, during the years of this educational 
work, have become Christians, and their children have 
followed the example of their parents, There is also a 
flourishing Sunday-school of more than two hundred 
children. They have under their care several young 
girls, two of whom were of one Jewish family, whose 
father was dead, and the mother, wishing them to be 
educated, gave them readily enough to the mission. 
But when the elder wished to be a Christian after be- 
ing educated she refused to consent, and took her away, 
but when the girl became of age (eighteen) she herself 
came back and is now engaged in its duties. Later 
her younger sister was taken also into the mission, and 
is a baptized member of the church. The great need 
of this work for the Jews is a home for homeless Jewish 
children. It would be worth more in this peculiar work 
than all other appliances. 

The only way to reach the Jews is by the children. 
All that can be accomplished in converting adult Jews 
will be for a long time comparatively little, either in 



284 

numbers or quality. The gathering of the Jews together 
in Christ's fold in childhood is the great work now for 
the Church. Jewish childhood stretches out its arms to 
the Christian Church, and the mistake will be fatal if 
the Church spends its strength in any other effort. 
She cannot do all, therefore let her work wisely. The 
Church is as much responsible to God for the exercise 
of common sense in her work as she is for her work. 
Millions of money have been lost, and also that which 
money will not buy, life, in efforts which have been 
failures in the beginning for the want of common sense 
in not choosing the places most promising. There is, 
in our judgment, in Buda Pesth no work comparable 
in the promise of the best, most genuine and lasting 
results to the Jews to the education of their chil- 
dren and caring for the orphan children of the poor. 
Money ought at once to be raised for this orphanage 
that -a building may be ready next year for wider 
efforts in this Jewish work. 

There is a corps of able and devoted teachers, men 
and women, who labor because they love it, and be- 
cause they love the souls of the perishing. Every thing 
is promising in the restricted field, but they are able 
and willing to do more. Will not the Christian Church 
give them the means to an end so Christlike and glori- 
ous? The prayers of the founders have not been fruit- 
less, they have already yielded harvests, and these are 
to be seen. Besides the prosperous church and school 
buildings there is a hospital filled with the sick and 
aged, which has the favor of all Buda Pesth. When it 
was evident that there would be war with Prussia and 
that no preparations were made adequate to taking care 
of the wounded, it was determined by the mission to 
start one, and to send to Germany for trained nurses 



285 

to give instruction to other nurses. There is in Ger- 
many a Sisterhood, or organization of Deaconesses, who 
are known over all Europe for their skill and ability 
in caring for the sick and wounded. They succeeded in 
securing a competent and faithful woman, who has been 
with them from the beginning, training women for the 
great mission to the pain-smitten and dying, and so this 
arm of mission work has gone on in answer to the 
prayer of that noble woman at the palace window. 
There are in connection with this hospital ample 
buildings, in which are seventy to one hundred rooms, 
and every needed provision for the work. The build- 
ings are capacious and beautifully located near the 
great park, in the midst of a great profusion of natural 
and cultivated flowers and vines. It is called Bethesda, 
and a more beautiful spot never bore the name. The 
ground and buildings are paid for and belong to the 
mission congregation, and are, as is the church, in affili- 
ation with the Reformed Protestant Church of Hun- 
gary. The hospital is in such favor that it receives help 
from the city. The sick are here healed, the dying have 
their sufferings mitigated and their souls enlightened 
in the dark valley, and comforted in their last hour's 
agonies, and the aged are provided for in their helpless- 
ness and blindness. 

About forty miles from Buda Pesth lives a rabbi 
who is making a mighty stir among the Jews, exciting 
their wrath to the highest degree. He has confessed the 
Lord as his Saviour, and their policy is to crucify him. 
As they cannot do him personal violence, they have 
their usual ingenuity at work to kill his influence. 
They first said he did not write the pamphlets which he 
had published, that they were the work of the mission- 
aries, and that he had been induced to sign them. 



286 

Bribery is always the first charge of the Jews against 
those who turn from Judaism, and it is not a little sug- 
gestive that the Jew can be bribed, else it would not be 
the first form of arraignment. They may have the re- 
membrance that Judas belonged to them and others a 
little less eminent. 

A member of Parliament, and somewhat famous 
among them, offered to bet a thousand florins that the 
rabbi did not write his publications, but he replied, " You 
had better keep your florins, for I will write in German 
and show you.' ' After this game of bluff they urged him 
to make a confession and be baptized, and wished the mis- 
sionaries to urge him. This was to get him out of the 
synagogue in which he was still officiating, for his people 
would not give him up, and as each Jewish community 
is independent they only could put him out. But he 
had been their rabbi for thirty-five years and they 
could not be persuaded to break the ties, as they said 
he was in no way neglecting his duties. So, being out- 
generaled, his enemies are still at work, writing anony- 
mous letters, distressing members of his family, setting 
spies to watch him, and trying to distress him financi- 
ally through a sum of money which he had borrowed 
from one of them on long time, and so continue 
in Jewish ways, which are dark, and showing spirit 
which is rancorous. He had a son, a young physician 
of great promise, who had, through the self-denials of his 
poor parents and his own labors and sore distresses from 
poverty, graduated with distinction in the Medical Uni- 
versity of Buda Pesth. On account of his abilities he 
had been appointed to the city hospital and had the 
promise of a bright future. His letters to his parents 
show his anxiety to succeed, and to put them beyond 
want in their old age, as the proper requital of a son to 



287 

them for the painful sacrifices they had made for him. 
He had labored until his strength was gone, and 
when he had received his appointment he broke down 
with hemorrhages of the lungs. In this critical stage 
the Jews were persecuting his father and taunting him 
— his dying condition had no influence in modifying 
their relentless hate. Oppressed with this opprobrium, 
and weakened by disease he yielded up his young life, 
glad to quit the turbulence which he could neither 
longer resist nor bear. So this poor rabbi can under- 
stand the words of the Psalm, " The bulls of Bashan 
have compassed me." 

The Rev. Mr. Moody arranged a visit to the rabbi's 
home, and we spent the day with him, eDj'oying his 
hospitality and trying to comfort their sorrow over 
the loss of their son by Christian sympathies. The. 
rabbi has lived in quiet and in the respect of his neigh- 
bors, Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed, who all say 
that they believe him to be sincere. His congregation 
is not large, a little community who have been located 
in this place over two hundred years. There is a very 
comfortable synagogue, the second on this spot since 
their organization, built by the liberality of some ear- 
nest Jew. His people are generally poor, living in 
houses not any better than the negro cabins in the South, 
but are intelligent and well-behaved. The rabbi's 
house was a little better, but a very humble place, dear 
to him as his home, the birth-place of his children and 
the death-place of his beloved son. He is a man of or- 
dinary stature and does not look much like a Jew, is 
about sixty years old, but well preserved, of a modest 
mien and thoughtful in his utterances — he is hospit- 
able in the Oriental sense. We were graciously received 
at the. railway station, and a comfortable conveyance 



288 

provided to take us to his home, a mile away. When 
we had been seated wine and bread were set before us 
and we were assured of our welcome. 

The day was mostly spent in talk upon themes akin 
to his position toward Christ and his religion, but 
the hospitalities of a Jewish household were not over- 
looked. Dinner was served, and Mr. Moody said, " The 
rabbi will ask us a blessing." He did not say any 
thing aloud, but broke a piece of bread and began eat- 
ing; it was perhaps a symbolical affair, like the Catholic 
crossing, but Mr. Moody was too good a Presbyterian to 
eat his food on a wordless ceremony and was evidently 
not satisfied, for he closed his eyes and said another that 
could be understood. The meal was very enjoyable, 
but it was strange, and we could but think of the dilem- 
ma of Peter, and what an offence it was to old Jewish 
prejudices for our Lord to eat with publicans and sin- 
ners, and what a hubbub it raised when the apostles 
ate with Gentiles. But as soon as the grace of our 
Lord enters the heart how cosmopolitan it becomes; 
there is henceforth no more Jew or Gentile in its 
vocabulary. The name of our host is Rabbi Lichten- 
stein, of Tapio Szele, Hungary, whose mind was first 
turned to the subject during the excitement of the trial 
known as the Tisza-Eszlar case, where the accusation 
was the mingling of Christian blood in the Easter sac- 
rifice of the Jews, to which reference has been made. 

The second of the pamphlets already published by 
the rabbi is called "My Testimony," and has these re- 
markable words : — " My testimony for Christ is so sim- 
ple and self-evident that I feel, if I were to keep silence, 
that the very stones would cry out." Its most marked 
utterances are the following: "Christ is the pillar of 
truth, the most glorious treasure of heaven, the bright- 



289 

est ornament of creation, the most exalted Son of Man 
who ever walked on earth, incarnate righteousness, the 
world's Saviour, the world's Messiah." "As the ocean 
receives the streams and rivers to itself, and they be- 
come one, so all the divine attributes are united in 
heavenly harmony in Christ, of whom Moses, in pro- 
phetic vision, said, ' The Lord thy God will raise up 
unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy 
brethren, like unto me ; unto him ye shall hearken.' " 
"Where Moses ended, there Christ began." "The 
Mosaic religion, with its sacrifices and ceremonial ob- 
servances, was for the Jews, but the Jewish faith — the 
worship of God, trust in God, love of one's neighbor, 
self-denial, sanctification, the sanctity of marriage, chas- 
tity and moral purity, the faith, the religion of the 
world — was founded and established by Christ. ' The 
law was given by Moses, grace and truth by Jesus 
Christ.' " " But why, my beloved, sorely-tried people, 
has this simple self-evidencing truth remained till now 
hidden from thee, and closed like a sealed letter ? ' To 
every thing there is a season, and a time to every pur- 
pose under the heaven.' " 

In answer to which Dr. Delitzsch, of Germany, wrote : 
" I have had great j oy in reading your ' Testimony.' We 
are convinced that all Israel will yet worship at the feet 
of David's Son of Bethlehem and of Nazareth. We have 
often the impression that the throes of the birth of what 
is in the future might be felt already, and as one of the 
signs of the coming union of the mother, the Synagogue, 
with the daughter, the Church, in God and His Christ, 
we welcome your good confession, which is likewise a 
courageous act. You will have much to suffer, reproach 
will be heaped upon you, but remember the words 
spoken by the Lord to Ezekiel." (Ez. ii. 8-7.) 



290 

As predicted by the eminent Professor, the storm 
came, and it was God's storm to cut him loose from 
kindred, and from hindering affinities ; and it was his time 
as well, and his mistake was that he did not embrace 
it to confess his neglected Lord in faith and baptism. 
He says he delays in the hope that he can bring his 
flock, which he has faithfully served for thirty-five 
years, with him. Most plausible reason, but one that 
will in all human probability be plausible enough to keep 
him out of the church of Jesus Christ, and swinging 
aimlessly between Judaism and Christianity, hated by the 
one and not cherished by the other. " No man can serve 
two masters." Nay, not even seem to serve two. The 
rabbi is now preparing another pamphlet, parts of 
which we heard, in answer to the allegations of the 
Jews, which still further confirms his previous position, 
and shows that he is coming into clearer light. His 
writings are in admirable spirit, and some parts have 
great force as wJl as pathos and beauty. Another 
will soon appear in print, and the rabbi will taste the 
cup of bitterness again. His poor wife said to Mr. 
Moody, "There is going to be a storm," and when he 
was about looking out to the skies she pointed to the 
manuscript and could not restrain herself from weep- 
ing. It is hard to endure persecution when we have 
convictions strong enough to sustain, but to be perse- 
cuted and cast out, to this poor woman, who only sym- 
pathizes with her husband and has not seen the light, 
is something terrible. 

The Jewish problem with reference to an immediate 
movement towards Christianity is very much as when 
the chemical elements are in a state of commotion 
ere a new combination is to be made ; there are heat 
and crackling until all is ready, and then the surprise 



291 

is that it was so peacefully accomplished. There 
is motion, but it is like the heating of water in a 
vessel, that which is next the iron is first heated and 
from the circumference the heat works inwardly. The 
centre is the last to come into equilibrium of tempera- 
ture. There is a strange and abnormal excitement 
among the Jews; they know themselves that they are 
restless, but either do not, or will not, know the reason. 
The needle is quivering before an unseen magnet. The 
Jew will not acknowledge that it i3 from the cross, but 
it disturbs him all the same, and it will disturb him 
more and more. Such cases as that of the Rabbi 
Rabinowitz and Lichtenstein and others have always 
been coming to the front in Judaism. The Lord 
Jesus has compelled the Jews in all ages to con- 
fess him through their federal heads, and such 
cases will become more frequent as the time of their 
return approaches. The Jewish Mission work in 
various parts is averaging satisfactory results. It 
suggests to us a truth learned early in our ministry 
through an elder, a farmer, who told us the following in 
answer to a complaint of the hardness of the work in 
which we were engaged. Said he, " A young and ardent 
minister became so dissatisfied with his field of labor that 
he went to one of his elders and proposed to resign his 
charge, saying that he would rather pound stone. The 
elder accepted the proposition and told the preacher 
that he would give him the same salary and would ex- 
pect honest service. The preacher was furnished with 
a long-handled hammer and put to work on one of 
those glacial stones which geologists say were roiled 
round in the glacial periods of the past, and which are 
known on the prairies as ' nigger-heads.' The preacher 
worked two days diligently, when he returned to his 



292 

patron, saying, ' I cannot break that rock ; I have 
pounded until my hands are blistered.' His employer 
said, ' I did not employ you to break it, but to pound it, 
that is what you said you had rather do than to preach 
to our church. I insist on you keeping your bargain.' 
Stung by the intimation of his unfaithfulness to his en- 
gagements, the preacher returned, and after another 
day's pounding, the rock being crystalline, shivered all 
unseen by the blows, dropped suddenly to pieces." It is 
our duty to work away with the Jews. The results are 
with God, and their conversion will be the greatest sur- 
prise of our existence, except our own salvation, and it 
will come one of these days. If we look only on one 
spot the case is not so hopeful, but as one and another 
of our missionaries report, the work becomes more 
cheering and is as when a great battle rages over miles 
of level and mountainous territory ; at one point a corps 
may be worsted, even routed, and the defeated may be 
saying our cause is gone. But the commander who, by 
his glass, surveys the whole field reports that other 
corps have beaten their enemies and that victory is 
gained over the ranks of the foe. 

It is a consolation to the Church that she has One 
who surveys the whole field and who issues as his word 
of command, " Write the vision and make it plain upon 
tables, that he may run that readeth it." So plain that 
every Jew will be compelled to read what are God's 
predeterminations for his people, even to return with 
weeping and contrition of heart to Israel's King, against 
whom they have dashed themselves in pieces. And 
while the motions of the Divine purpose are to us, who 
measure life by minutes, slow, we can moderate our 
impatience and unbelief by the promise, " The vision is 
yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak 



293 

and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will 
surely come, it will not tarry." 

The Prophet Hosea waited longer than any of us in 
an eclipse dark as that around the cross in the Lord's 
dying, and yet hope entering, fruition arched his hori- 
zon. We hear from all points of the compass reports 
of progress, a few have believed and more are inquir- 
ing, the fruit is in all its conditions of ripening, from 
the first faint tint of impression to the clearer lines of 
conviction, and on to the golden ripeness of conversion 
and confession of Jesus Christ King of the Jews. The 
reports of the Scottish missions alone demonstrate not 
only the possibility of final victory, but ought to cheer 
and impel the Church to anticipate its joys now in the 
dust and darkness of the conflict. These alone give 
far and near glorious preludes of the coming home of 
Christ's alien brothers. 

We can only in these letters give impressions, but 
are diligent in all possible ways to get the truth from 
the missionaries, but not from these only. We ask 
those without and seek the sentiment prevailing in the 
communities. We believe that we have given a mod- 
erate estimate of this Jewish work, not only in Buda 
Pesth, but as it averages through all the stations, as well 
as the prevailing sentiment of the Jews themselves, for 
the increase of hostility among them shows that there 
are movements to be dreaded. We cannot close this 
letter without a word about the kindness of Rev. An- 
drew Moody and his estimable sister, who made our 
stay profitable, not only in helpful sources of knowl- 
edge, but in personal kindnesses, which made our stay 
a delight and our departure a regret. 



DOWN THE DANUBE. 

THE countries along the Danube are but little known 
to the general public, and but for the stirring 
political movements of the last few years would have little 
interest now. Great fertile plains spread out on both sides 
of the Danube, with little interruption, almost to Bel- 
grade. Some localities are worthy of notice for what they 
have been in the past. On the right bank is the dilapidated 
town of Mohacs, with the dreary memories of the vic- 
tory of the Turks in 1526 under Solyman, the Magnifi- 
cent, who with twenty thousand men annihilated at one 
blow the army of Lewis II., leaving twenty-two thou, 
sand out of the thirty thousand Christians dead on 
the field, the flower of the Magyar Chivalry. The 
king was stifled in a swamp near the village of Czeize. 
His death was the beginning of the German dynasty in 
Hungary, but on the same spot in 1686 the century's 
disaster was ended, with the loss of only six hundred 
Christians, but by the slaughter of twenty thousand 
Turks, under the magnificent genius of the Duke of 
Lorraine, which ended all Turkish efforts to invade 
Hungary. 

At Aftin, a dirty village, the people have established 
a mission much needed in this sinful world, and one 
which has done good since to the living and is not 
likely to be superseded while sin lasts ; this is the rais- 
ing of hemp and the manufacture of ropes by which not 
a few have changed worlds, and generally for the benefit 
294 



295 



of this mundane sphere. All along the Danube are 
most interesting remains, one of which is Schanngrad, 
where the ruins of a temple of Diana have been un- 
covered and remain in such preservation as to be easily 
identified. 

The scenery now becomes picturesque, and a range 
of young mountains come forth to greet the eye with 
their diversities, covered with a verdure of a peculiar 
green, which can be understood best as youthful green, 
and this is characteristic of all the grass and foliage 
of the mountains on both sides through the whole 
length of this wonderful river. Here the water changes 
color, the dirty Drave, according to the well-known law 
of deterioration, changes its upper purer waters into its 
own ashy hue which it carries with it, and only loses 
its degradation in the loss of itself in the sea. On the 
right bank is the famous fortress of Peterwardein, 
which has a history written in blood, for here Prince 
Eugene gained a decisive victory over the Turks in 
1716. Some have called it the " Ehrenbreitstein" of 
the Danube, but this is in metaphor, for it has none of 
the strength of that famous fortress, though it would 
give a deal of trouble to an invading army still, for it 
presents to both water and land a very formidable face 
of walls, with tiers of green bastions. Under it there 
are chambers in the rock by which defence could 
be continued or by which armies could escape. 
On the same side is a broken-down town of five or six 
thousand inhabitants, which is great because it had 
greatness thrust upon it; its name is Karlowitz, and has 
its eminence only in the pages of almost forgotten his- 
tory, as the spot where the first shearing of the Turkish 
fleece began in a treaty of peace in 1699, under the 
mediation of England and Holland, Austria, Hungary, 



296 

and Selavonia. It had for two hundred years been oc- 
cupied by the Turks. The important acquisition of 
Transylvania took half of the Sultan's European fleece 
at one clip. 

Semlin is on the borderland and is the last Hungarian 
town on the right bank. It is built on a tongue of land 
between the Danube and the Save, which divides Hun- 
gary from Servia and pours its waters into the Danube be- 
t ween the to wns of Semlin and Belgrade. The only thing 
to be seen worth attention in this place are the remains of 
the castle of the crusader John Hunzady, the champion 
of Christendom in the fifteenth century, who delivered it 
from Turkish rule and died here in 1456 in sight of 
the rock-built fortress of Belgrade. The castle of Bel- 
grade, the scene of the Hungarian hero's most triumph- 
ant victory, would, if history would permit, look down 
in proud contempt on its less pretentious Christian rival 
and victor. 

Belgrade now appears and claims attention more 
from its figure in history than from any thing apparent 
in itself. It is the capital of Servia now, but in the 
past it has been for centuries the neplus ultra to Moham- 
medanism. It has alternately been the bulwark of 
Hungary and Christendom, and the check to Turkish 
invasion. No other capital in Europe has had such 
victories and adversities. Constantinople had scarcely 
fallen before Belgrade became the nest object of 
burning infidel quest, and Mohammed attacked it with 
an army of two hundred thousand, a force so enormous 
that it threw all Europe into panic, and but for the 
eloquence of the monk, John Capistran, who preached 
a crusade through Europe, and the bravery of General 
John Hunzady, who disciplined this mob gathered 
from everywhere, Hungary would have been lost, and 



297 

with it probably all Christendom. The Turkish fleet 
was destroyed, or driven off, and thirty thousand Turks 
killed. It was again taken by Solyman, the Magnifi- 
cent, in 1522, and remained in the hands of the Sultans 
for about a century and a half, until the Elector Max- 
imilian, of Bavaria, recovered it in 1688. In 1690 it 
again fell into the hands of the Turks, but was restored 
by the conquest of Prince Eugene in 1717 to Austria, 
who gave it back at the peace of Belgrade. It was 
captured by Loudon in 1789, and in 1791 the Turks 
received it back again. 

Servia has for a long time been acknowledged by the 
Porte, according to the Treaty of Adrian ople, as an inde- 
pendent state, governed by Princes of its own, with the 
free exercise of religion. Its form of government is con- 
stitutionally under control of a chamber, and the people 
are moving for a second, but they are not yet con- 
vinced of its need, though its statesmen feel it every day. 
By the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 it acquired three hun- 
dred and eighty square miles of additional territory to 
the south. Since the Turkish rule has been broken the 
Turk, who destroys every thing and is the grasshopper of 
the East, is leaving, and Belgrade would not now be re- 
cognizable to the citizens of a half century ago. New 
houses are constantly being built, some of these are quite 
stylish and modern. One of the great philanthropic 
movements in house-building has been carried on 
through the labors of a good Scotchman bearing the hon- 
orable name of the family of McKenzie. He was a man 
of fortune, but unmarried ; he gave it all away in benevo • 
lence, except a comparatively small sum, with a part 
of which he bought a large piece of property in the 
suburbs of Belgrade. This he has utilized to the good 
of the poor laboring classes by building houses under 



298 

his own supervision, and for the least possible expendi- 
ture, which he sells to the people on conditions which they 
can meet and thus own their own homes. Hundreds 
of poor men now own their houses, or soon will, and 
such is the favor of the people that he is regarded in 
honor almost next to the throne, He has been pros- 
trated by a severe illness, which it is yet feared, by many 
of his friends, will prove fatal. During his illness he 
was visited by the king and nobles, and the people 
stood in multitudes about his house to hear the last 
news of the doctors about him. Preparations were 
actually in progress, when it was thought his case was 
hopeless, to give him a right royal burial, but he did 
not relish this phase of royalty enough to give his 
friends a chance. He clung to life to the amazement 
of all, and to the disgust of some. He had made pro- 
vision in his conveyance of the properties sold, that no 
one of them should be used for the sale of ardent spirits. 
One man defied him and carried on his miserable work 
under the Scotch Presbyterian's nose, but he did not 
know his mettle or he would never have ventured on that 
prank. Mr. McKenzie took the case to the courts, and 
had carried it to the highest courts when he was taken 
so ill, so the " rum-sellers," as we would call them, 
thought death had come to their aid. But they did not 
know the contrariness of a Scotchman when principle 
is at stake. The king tried to get him to let up on the 
publican, but he had been taught by John Knox not 
to yield to either the fawnings or preachings of kings, 
and so he kept on, steadfast to his purpose 

When he had lucid intervals he inquired of his phy- 
sician about the suit, and when he could not speak he 
pondered as to whether there was a possibility of a 
Scotchman's dying when principle was at stake or on 



299 

trial. "When lie was but a little convalescent, scarcely 
enough on which to hang a hope, and the people of the 
city were sending in delicacies, both high and low vie- 
ing with each other to honor the good foreigner, he said 
one day in whispers to his physician that while most 
of the people were no doubt sincere in desiring him to 
live, and that their delicacies were beautiful tributes of 
their affection, it would be to the interest of some 
that he should die, referring to his law-suit, and, said 
he, " I will taste none of them.' ' The suit was decided 
in his favor ; principle, so dear to his heart, was main- 
tained, and he improved daily. Later on he sent for 
the recalcitrant publican and forgave the penalty, but 
not until he was adjudged a transgressor. The good 
foreigner is loved dearly for both his severity and gen- 
tleness, and both have made him great in the eyes of 
the Servians. But it is feared that he will never be 
well again, and he has just returned to his native land 
either to be restored or to sleep with his fathers. It is 
to be hoped that the man of justice and simple piety 
will live to carry on his good work and enjoy the con- 
fidence which he has inspired. But if God orders it 
otherwise men will pause at his grave to drop a tear 
over one who loved to stand with the right, to help his 
fellow-men, and be ready to enter the rest that remain- 
eth for the people of God, the men of his generation 
reverently pronouncing the divine formula, " Well done 
good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy 
Lord." 

The Servians are striving hard to gain a place among 
the well-behaved and well-governed nations. Their 
great desire is to be let alone until educational influ- 
ences can be brought to bear to free the multitudes from 
the fatal power of ignorance. The present ministry are 



300 

working hard to this end to develop the mental re- 
sources of the nation, but this will come to nothing un- 
less their morals improve, and true religion only can do 
this. But what chance is there under ignorant Roman 
Catholic and Greek priests, mere drones, constitution- 
ally averse to all progress, both moral or political. 
Well they know that either will cast them out and their 
profession will be gone. The king is just what he has 
shown himself, a weak, vain upstart, without moral 
character, good sense or courage. His drubbing by 
Alexander did him little good. It cost many lives, 
both in Servia and Bulgaria, but the wise man hath 
described Milan in these words : " Though thou shouldest 
bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with the pestle, yet 
will not his foolishness depart from him." He hinders 
the government with his meddling ; now he is lax and now 
tyrannical, nobody can tell why ; he is unstable as water. 
Just now he is in a quarrel with his wife, and the people 
are on her side. She is regarded as a pure and good 
woman, cursed with a profligate husband utterly unfaith- 
ful to her and as unworthy as unfaithful. The people 
are so fearful that any disturbance on his account may 
give Russia or somebody else a pretext to meddle with 
their liberty that they put up with what in theii heart 
of hearts they abhor. 

Servia has great resources, though her territory is but 
twenty-five thousand square miles — not larger than 
Rhode Island. She has plenty of coal, iron, copper and 
lead, has good silver mines, once worked by the Romans, 
quicksilver, tin, &c. But her trouble is that she can- 
not develop these resources herself, and there is a jealousy 
through all these countries on the Danube which will 
not permit foreigners to organize and push these in- 
dustries for them. There will soon be opened the 



301 

shortest route from Europe to Constantinople through 
Servia — in fact, her part of the road is finished. The 
trade in Servian hogs is prodigious for the territory, 
but this is explained by the abundance of acorns in 
almost boundless oak forests, and the flesh of swine fed 
upon them has a pleasant flavor and brings a good price 
in the markets. 

The Danube becomes now the centre of indescribable 
beauties. It forces its way through a rock-worn chan- 
nel, and frets and chafes against angular rocks and 
sharp projections thrust out to hinder it3 progress until 
its face is white with rage. The geology of this river is 
something wonderful. We have seen some of the most 
remarkable formations in our own country, but nothing 
in magnesian deposits to compare with these heights, as 
marked in their structure as in their combined gran- 
deur. The Danube has not cut its way through, nor 
is its course the result of water forces, for the track of 
the river can be traced on the mountain sides, and after 
a few feet no marks of water wear can be seen ; nor are 
there any indications of any lakes or great basins that 
could have held the forces to open this passage. The 
facts are apparent that this magnesian range has been 
lifted up and then broken apart, leaving this chasm, 
which the gathered waters from the heavens were ready 
to occupy. The breakage is seen in the fact that the 
strata on each side match and lie in the same level, and 
that the contortions or twistings of the rocks are alike. 
Many look as if they had been poured out in a melted 
condition to run down as lava from a volcano. These 
mountains of solid limestone of the most recent forma- 
tion are hundreds of feet high. Of course, it is difficult 
to measure by the eye, but there can be no mistake in 
saying that they reach hundreds of feet and stand with 



302 

faces perpendicular, not overhanging, but as if broken 
open and then settled back, a little wider at the top 
than at the bottom. The sharp angles at the bottom 
have yielded to the resistless current of the river, which 
has all its way an unusual fall. 

At one point the river narrowed down to one-fourth its 
usual width and rushed directly against a mountain, and 
no possible outlet can be seen until the prow of the vessel 
appears on the point of dashing against the rocks of 
the confronting mountain, when at right angles the 
river turns so short that it requires the helmsman's 
utmost skill to turn the boat into a narrow defile, on 
each side of which the mountains rise into the clouds, 
and the eagles scream wildly, as if their high places 
were in danger of being invested. Here the waters com- 
ing down from all the plains of Austria and Hungary 
force a passage to the Black Sea, and in the narrow 
channel eddies and boiling waves hiss with rage. 
Here the robber knights of the barbarous past fixed 
their strongholds, and from the opposite bank of the 
river bade defiance to all approach. 

On the left bank a ruined castle is seen, which con- 
sisted once of nine towers, built on a projecting rock at 
an apparently inaccessible height, but it only declares 
that there has been a bloody past, where life was in 
constant peril and as constantly seeking security for 
itself. The foundation of this castle is believed to 
be Koman. Tradition says that the topmost tower 
was the prison of the Greek Empress Helena. The 
mountains, like all limestone formations, have caves, 
and strange projections often resembling the human 
face. In one of these tradition locates the slaying of 
the Dragon by St. George, the putrid carcass of which 
turned into gnats, which pour forth at certain seasons 



303 

and send death and distress to both man and beast 
within a radius of forty miles. There is no doubt about 
the gnats, but of their origin we leave our readers to 
decide. The probabilities are that they come from the 
marshes. They are not larger than ordinary gnats, but 
are able to kill horses and oxen by attacking the ten- 
der parts, on which there is no hair. They enter the 
eyes, nostrils and throat and produce such inflammation 
as to end life by suffucation. Children have been killed 
by gnats entering their throats and stinging their lungs 
into inflammation, producing the greatest agony, with 
all the symptoms of pneumonia and tuberculous con- 
sumption. These insects are perhaps in the main 
identical with the culex reptans of Lapland described 
by Linnaeus. The only protection against them is in 
building great fires, to which even the wild beasts of 
the forests will come by the instinct of self-protection. 

The river breaks down into cataracts at a place 
called Drenhora, and from this to Skela Gladova, a 
distance of twenty miles, we were obliged to ride in 
carriages. Here at disembarking we first encountered 
the Wallachians of this mountainous region, a strange 
kind of people, Oriental in size, dress and habit3. This 
is our first introduction to clouted feet. The legs are 
wrapped in thick woollen cloth and bound with leather 
thongs, and a kind of leather moccasin laced upon the 
feet. Many had only a bundle of rags tied about their 
legs, and wore Turkish trousers and jackets of sheep- 
skin, all scaly with sweaty dirt. They never wash 
unless they accidentally fall into the river, and their 
clothes are worn until they fall off. There were jackets 
that were patch upon patch, how long none would ven- 
ture to surmise, the first fabric had been gone for years. 
They all have girdles, six or seven inches wide, by 



304 

which they keep up their trousers. The women wear 
dresses of white, coarse linen, also dirty, with long 
fringe of different colored threads hanging down in the 
back and in front a gay apron reaching below the 
knees, and are barefooted and repulsive. 

These creatures live in inconceivable dirt. Their 
towns can only be matched in squalidness in Turkey. 
They are farmers and herdsmen and vine-raisers, for 
the vine on these limestone hills grows almost in- 
digenously. They raise wheat in great abundance, for 
the limestone land, with its red clay subsoil and black 
loam, is the native place of wheat. The mills are as 
queer as the people. These consist of boats anchored 
in the swift waters of the river, with great wooden 
water wheels, fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, with 
the buckets or boards catching the water on the under 
side, for instead of the overshot wheels as used in 
our country mills, these are undershot, this simple 
contrivance giving velocity to the mills by gearing 
to the stones. To our surprise it is said they make 
good flour, and certainly the bread proves it. An- 
other product is oar Indian corn, called here "kuku- 
ruit," which is food for the people through months, 
in roasted and boiled ears, and so abundant is it 
in Wallachia that it sells for about eight dollars a 
ton. We passed orchards of large blue plums, in which 
the yield would not be less than five hundred bushels. 
These are made into jellies, marmalades and brandies. 
The mode of hay-stacking here is novel, to say the least. 
They stack their hay in the tops of the trees. A mul- 
berry, catalpa or apple tree with outspreading branches 
has a stack started in the centre boughs, and if they 
bend to the earth under the load they are propped up, 
A ton of hay thus lifts its head in a graceful stack, and 



305 

this mode is labor saving, for the cattle can lift their 
heads and pull it down from below, and the hay will 
sink down as needed. 

At the end of the carriage journey, which was not a 
disagreeable variation of the travel, we re-embarked upon 
the seething river, greatly enraged by its narrow bounds 
and rocky bottom, so that its velocity here is almost 
frightful. The rocks become more insolent and thrust 
themselves into view on all sides, some in crescent form3 
and some as battlements fierce for the fray. These 
frettings are caused by reefs of hard porphyry crossing 
the river obliquely like a dam, producing a fall of eight 
feet, beyond which is another with tremendous break- 
ers, but only formidable in low water. Here the 
limestone gives place to the sandstone, red and white, 
projecting far into the river, worn and polished by the 
rush of untold centuries, from which we pass into water 
almost without a ripple, and then around a point 
crowned with a triple towered castle of Roman origin. 
The liver breaks out into a broad expanse of laughing 
water after her fierce conflicts are over, and the white 
chalk cliffs, flanking the entrance to it, are conspicuous 
for a great distance, and surpass in height any preci- 
pice yet passed, and exceed in grandeur all others. 
At this point there is a wonderful display of engineer- 
ing skill in a road built in 1840 which is cut through 
the solid rock, blasted out sufficiently to allow vehicles to 
pass each other. Here is colossal grandeur, the rocks 
to their giddy summits are perpendicular and the ex- 
treme height above the water is said to be two thou- 
sand feet, while the river is narrowed between to two 
hundred yards. 

On the Servian side is one of the wonders of the ages 
gone by, which startles us into inquiry as to whether 



3*6 

the times in which we live are any more remarkable in 
their victories over the forces of nature than the dead 
past. In the side of the rock, ten or more feet above 
high water mark, are sockets seven inches square in 
which the ends of timbers were inserted upon which 
planks were placed, as on a bridge, forming a highway 
around this mountain overhanging the water. This 
was built by the Roman Emperor Trajan during his 
occupation of this country. This is not the only place 
where the work of the Romans appears on the Danube, 
but it is one of the least defaced by time. It was a tow- 
path, but a road also over which the troops and muni- 
tions of war were moved as well ; and this balcony road 
extended for fifty miles above the swerving current of 
the river. A coin was struck to commemorate this 
triumph, bearing the inscription " Via Trajan." Below, 
a mile or two, is a cavern called Veteran's Cave, from the 
fact that a brave Austrian General who in 1692 had 
the chief command in Transylvania hid in it a garrison 
of four hundred men, by which it was resolutely de- 
fended for many weeks against a host of Turks. In 
1728 it was again successfully defended by Mayor Von 
Stein. 

The boat soon bears on to another famous spot where 
the Danube is narrowest in all its course, being but one 
hundred and twenty-three yards in width. At this 
point stood another famous Roman fort, at the end 
of the narrow defile through which the river rushes 
madly on into a wider channel. Upon a cliff on the 
right bank is a tablet bearing this inscription in honor 
of Trajan ; the tablet is supported by two winged figures, 
with a dolphin on each side, and surmounted by a 
Roman eagle : " Imp. Csesar Nerva F. Nerva Traianvs 
Avg. Germ. Pontiff Maximus Trib. Po. XXX.," to 



307 

commemorate Trajan's first Dacian campaign, A. D., 
103, and the construction of the wonderful road along 
the Danube. 

The remote southern boundaries of Hungary are 
now reached. Orsova is the last of its towns, an old 
military station of about nine hundred inhabitants, left 
to desolation, which is usual with river towns when 
railroads go around them. Here the Wallachians 
appear in their best and worst peculiarities, a race dis- 
tinct from both Hungarians and Sclavs ; their appear- 
ance is more wild and barbarous, clad in long shirts 
with rude belts around their waists and loose trousers. 
The rest of their garments are made of sheepskins dressed, 
and sometimes embroidered, but usually so covered with 
dirt that it is cracked like an alligator's hide. The fact 
must be confessed that " store-clothes' ' have much to do 
in making reputation ia the world. It is said that 
this is a kind and comparatively harmless people, but 
their toggery is against them. This was specially im- 
pressed on us in Orsova while taking a morning stroll 
for health and to explore the town. Near the hotel we 
were confronted by a woman leading a boy ten or 
twelve years old on whom there was nothing, except 
what nature had given, save the sunshine. The mother, 
a copper-colored individual with long hair, jet black, had 
on a badly worn jersey, which constituted nearly all her 
wardrobe. She desired to hold a conversation with the 
" Melican" on the subject of finance, especially in that 
part of Wallachia, but the " Melican man" turned his 
back and made for his hotel as fast as his locomotive 
powers would carry him. But the earnest financier 
and her Secretary of Leg-ation, whom she held by the 
hand, were equal to his longest strides. She labored to 
instruct him in Vallack, but he was not inclined to the 



308 

study of the languages, so it was nip and tuck until he 
reached the court ; but she followed on until the " Meli- 
can" rose on the stairs three steps at a stride and the 
grand Wallachian financier and her secretary disap- 
peared. But so great a fear came over the American 
that he never appeared on the street alone unless in a 
voiture behind a pair of fleet horses. 

Another peculiarity of the Wallachians is the way 
in which babyhood is managed in order that the mother 
may carry on the business of life, which consists of every 
thing of drudgery that mortal can do. There is a long 
basket about ten inches wide, swung by straps from the 
shoulders, so that it lies horizontally across the mother's 
back at the waist. In this basket the little fellow coos, 
grumbles and bawls just as he chooses, while the 
mother walks, works, digs, tends masons, carried bricks 
on her head, stands in the markets, or drives oxen. 

Orsova is most distinguished at present for having the 
spot of ground in which Kossuth hid from 1849-1852 
the Hungarian crown of St. Stephen from the grasp of 
the Austrian government. The place where it was 
found is marked by a little octagonal chapel, in the 
centre of which is an opening in the ground perhaps 
five feet deep, bricked around, in which is now a cast 
of the famous crown, thought to be indispensable to the 
existence of the kingdom. The chapel is reached 
through avenues of the most magnificent Lombardy 
poplars to be seen in all Europe. 

The "bougie" is a costly institution in this country. 
The " Sit Lux' ' over here costs. In one's room two can- 
dles stand upright, long and lank. One imagines that 
they have been created for the altar. One is lit and 
then the other, in order that the first may be seen. 
Fraud appears here in all its pettiness, as in our 



309 



country it is visible in its gigantic magnitudes. 
Down through these candles, through their whole 
lank lengths, are holes to help them out of exist- 
ence with the greatest dispatch, so that the Irish- 
man's method of candle-making is clearly disclosed, 
which was " to take a hole and run tallow around it." 
Each of these tall monuments of traditional fraud costs 
a franc, and as often as they can be removed two more 
are substituted at the same price, sometimes two for a 
franc, revealing a gleam of righteousness still surviving. 
An Englishman had for several weeks kept these co- 
efficients of various francs, and determined to teach the 
practical lesson that it is a poor rule that won't work 
both ways. So as he was about to leave he rolled them 
up in paper and carried them down-stairs under his 
arm, and as is the wont all the servants, valets, coach- 
men, &c, by whom a franc is expected as the pour- 
boire, were waiting at the entrance. He opened his 
treasure and handed a candle to each, saying, " Here 
is a franc for you," and in their amazement made his 
adieus. 

The only time an unmitigated fraud has been per- 
petrated on us up to this writing was in this town of 
Orsova. As there are no lingual affinities between the 
American tongue and the Wallacbian, there were some 
difficulties experienced on the great bread question. 
A long, lank, hatchet-faced individual made his salaams 
as an interpreter. He was a veteran soldier, according 
to his own account, out of the service however, and that 
he "parlez vous-ed" only for the euphony and general 
agreeableness of the thing. He was too high-toned to be 
in the employ of any hotel. Our " bones," which never 
fail us, were against the junction sought to be formed 
so grandiloquently with shoulder hitchings, facial con- 



310 

tortious, &c. But necessity knows no prudence, and 
he joined himself to us. lie was a knowing individual. 
He said there was a train for Bucharest at twelve 
o'clock, and conveyed us out of the town in a grand 
voiture, bag and baggage. He informed us that he had 
arranged every thing, and that the necessities of his 
family required his immediate attention, and began his 
pantominic adieus. Of course, the grand old veteran 
was tempted with a fee (and we say in a parenthesis 
that the American need have no fears in offering a fee 
to anybody he meets), and our soldier friend moved 
quickly off. 

"We soon found that there was no train till after 
twelve o'clock at night; we were two miles from Or- 
sova and all the carriages were gone ! While we were 
musing, like Isaac of olden times, on the strangeness of 
human events, we saw coming through the avenues of 
Loinbardy poplars visions of our own kind, dressed in 
English fashion ; " good angels were hovering around." 
They drew near and we recognized them as an Eng- 
lish gentleman, his wife and daughter. They greeted 
us in generous English fashion, asked us with a cor- 
diality, which can only be expressed in the English 
language, to go with them to their chateau upon the 
mountain-side. We were too much overjoyed to 
stand on formalities and accepted. Miss Stewart, an 
English lady whom we had met the day previous upon 
the boat, was their guest and had told them of us. Mr. 
Hollway had been in our country, eDJoyed its hospitali- 
ties, and seemed only to be looking for an opportunity 
to return them, and this was his and our time. He did 
it in a way that made the rest of the day as joyous as 
any in life. He and his delightful family entertained 
us till midnight, and he then conveyed us to the cars 



311 

and bade us farewell at one o'clock in the morning. 
He is in this Hungarian country taking care of mining 
interests of his own and of his friends, and is in a sense 
a voluntary exile. He has a family of bright and de- 
lightful children who feel the self-denials imposed, 
especially the want of church privileges, for they are 
Christians. Our remembrances of them will be long 
and precious. 

During our stay we drove down the river to the 
" Iron Gates," so famed in the history of the Danube. 
Why these cataracts, not equal to the rapids of the St. 
Lawrence, are called " Iron Gates' ' is hard to tell, for 
here ends the magnesian formation and the slate ap- 
pears ; the water rushes over slate beds at a frightful 
rate, but there is a channel through which the largest 
boats run in high water. The Austrian government 
engaged, in the Berlin treaty, to put a channel through 
after the methods adopted in the opening of ' : Hell 
Gate" in the East River. This will be undertaken im 
mediately and will be on the Servian side. The name 
is only a figure referring to the difficult passage. Fur- 
ther down below the rapids are the remaining three 
piers of Trajan's Bridge, intact amidst the rush of waters 
through the long centuries of pelting storms and the 
wastings of the air, monuments of the power of the 
Roman Empire in the days of its imperial greatness. 
From the vineyard back of the house of our English 
host could be seen the boundaries of Hungary, Roumania 
and Servia. 



LEAVING THE DANUBE. 

BEFORE we pass to new scenes we must say a word 
as to the political condition of Hungary, which is 
interesting, and is growing more so in the midst of 
the stirring events in European politics. There is a 
chronic hostility in Hungary to the Sclavs, who are 
by blood affinities connected rather with Russia than 
with Austria. They are thoroughly distrusted and 
hated by the Hungarians. Their ascendency in Hun- 
gary would be a great calamity. They seem to be a 
quiet, industrious people, but with little disposition shown 
hitherto to advance. Were it not for the unconquera- 
ble hostility of Hungary to Russia they would not be 
so objectionable. The secret of this hostility to Russia 
is not only because of fear generated by her disposition to 
grasp the territory of her weak neighbors, but because of 
the fact that Russia helped Austria to put down the Revo- 
lution of the Hungarians in 1849. But for her inter- 
ference Hungary would have been independent. This 
will not be forgiven, and an opportunity is all that is 
wanted to plunge at once into a war of revenge. Rus- 
sia knows this, and is setting up the same claim, to wit, 
oppression to her kinsmen the Sclavs, which was made 
against Turkey concerning the Bulgarians. Sa strong 
was this natural hostility that Hungary would have 
refused any accession of Sclav territory in the Treaty 
of Berlin had it not been accomplished by an appeal to 
her national vanity. The Emperor of Austria well 
knew that it could not be done by an Austrian, so he 
312 



313 



used Andrasay, the Hungarian Minister, then so popu- 
lar with the people, and through his machinations Herze- 
govina and Bosnia, Sclav states, were added to Austria. 
But the Hungarians had no enthusiasm about it, and 
it was soon found convenient by the Emperor to make 
a personal visit to his Minister, which is always the 
forecast of a dismissal, which followed, in this case, soon 
after, and he has not been needed for more than ten 
years. 

The present Hungarian Minister, M. Tisza, is a man 
of great foresight and power, and has vast resources of 
eloquence with which to make them effective. He is 
an antagonist whom Russia respects, a Protestant, of 
good standing in his moral life, and has with great 
ability nearly finished his ten years' term, and will prob- 
ably enter another, as he is satisfactory to the Hunga- 
rians, which is the most important element to be consid- 
ered in order to continuance. The Hungarians have been 
great friends of the English, and at one time the sway 
of Great Britain was almost supreme. But the indif- 
ference of the Gladstone government to the Russian 
encroachments, and the impression that England will 
only meddle in Turkish and Danubian affairs as long 
as it conserves her own interests, has produced a cool- 
ness. Even the English Tories are now distrusted as 
being indifferent to the fate of Hungary if it does not 
injure England. Those who know English policies and 
histories will wonder that the Hungarians have been 
so slow in finding this out, But with all these little in- 
conveniences England can count on the support of 
Hungary, and with her Austria, in any attack on Rus- 
sia, for the very reason which she imputes to England 
— selfishness. 



314 

In continuing our journey the river was left in order 
to cut off more than two hundred niile3 of its course, 
the shores of which are flat, swampy and without 
especial interest, to cross Roumania to its capital, 
Bucharest. Roumania is the surviving form of Mol- 
davia and Wallachia. It is a most pleasing and fertile 
country, with great plains or prairies, on which are 
countless herds of the finest white cattle, and also herds 
of buffalo, distinguished by their bluish-black hides and 
peculiar horns, which start out above the ears and bead 
backward, curving at the end. They are heavy-bodied, 
short, compact, ugly, and compare in no way with the 
splendid white oxen, which are as intelligent-looking as 
they are beautiful. The land here is richer than the 
best in America, for the same limestone lies under it 
that has followed us hundreds of miles, with its red sub- 
soil and black loam. Wheat and corn extend further 
than the eye can reach on every side. Wheat ricks are 
strung all along the way, four or five hundred feet long 
and sometimes ten or twelve in number. Fruits of every 
kind abound and acres of melons ; every prospect pleases. 
God has done wonders, but man has wasted his bounties. 
The cursa of war and abominable oppressions have been 
upon the land, until during Turkish rule the people would 
own nothing that they'could not hide. They dressed 
then in vile rags, so that they might be thought beggars, 
to avoid the greed of the Turkish tax-gatherer. The 
present curse on them is nearly as bad. It is the army 
craze, which is fast impoverishing all Europe in soul, 
mind, body and effects. This little Roumania must 
support 30,000 soldiers.- The manhood of the country 
is debauched from eighteen years of age by idleness and 
its vices. The soldiers consume the substance of the 
people and return nothing but utter demoralization. 



315 

Bucharest is a little city which ha3 new life started 
within it, and is emerging out of its old ways, building 
new and handsome buildings, widening its streets and 
paving them, and presents the appearance of a butterfly 
with its head creeping out of the grub state. King 
George, of the House of Hapsburgh, is the ruler, with 
whom the people seem at present satisfied, and he is 
showing some ideas of progress in his administration of 
affairs. 

Bucharest has about two hundred and twenty-five thou- 
sand inhabitants, and by the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, 
Koutnania was made independent. It has a Senate, con- 
sisting of the heir-apparent, the Archbishops and bishops 
and sixty-six elected members, and a Chamber of Depu- 
ties of one hundred and fifty-one members. The popu- 
lation of Roumania is five million, and it has emerged 
from a state of semi-barbarism during the present cen- 
tury. The religious condition of Roumania is bad ; the 
people perish for lack of knowledge. Dense ignorance 
prevails, which when punctured closes up like an open- 
ing made in gutta-percha. To raise this people from 
under the dull gravity of the Greek church you must 
not only open their understandings but keep them open, 
or the work of evangelization might be repeated every 
hour without a particle of progress. The Roman 
Catholic priest is inconceivably above the stupid Greek 
church papas, vain of his long hair, his good appear- 
ance, and acting even in his services as if heaven and earth 
were admiring the beauty of his person or the tones of his 
voice. There are no doubt exceptions, but the average 
are not better than described. Into the life of the Rom- 
ish priest the progress of religion all about him has 
forced some elevating ideas of his office and its duties. 
But the Greek priest lives nowhere where there is anj 



316 

progress ; lie would not be healthy in it. He and the 
Turk have been side-by-side so long that one is only 
the counterpart of the other. The people have no in- 
struction, the only difference between themselves and 
their priest is that he is taller, larger about the waist, 
and has better clothes and a finer voice. The mission- 
ary is as much needed in all these lower Danubian 
provinces as in China, but the work would make more 
progress. 

The missionary outfit is a Christian life and its sacri- 
ficing spirit, expressing itself in the patience of love, a 
good English education and aptness to teach, a kin- 
dergarten education and the facilities of its object-teach- 
ing, plenty of pictures to charm the young mind, a 
cabinet organ and ability to play and sing. At the 
first no more need be attempted than the sweet stories of 
the Scriptures, teaching them to read for themselves and 
to sing those gospel hymns with their choruses, the great- 
est Christian lever under the heathenism of the century, 
then they can be led to the cross of Christ as clouds and 
doves come to their windows. One need not bother 
with their language, but should compel them to learn 
ours. . Supersede their language in conversation as quickly 
as possible, and an aristocracy of English-speaking na- 
tives will be built up which will draw the young into it, 
and with the English language on their tongues, the Bible 
in their hands, and a Christian life before them, they 
will be under the control of Christianity before they 
know it. 

The Danube lies between Roumania and Bulgaria. 
Giurgevo is the last town on the Roumanian side, and 
from this disembarkation is made for Rustchuk, a 
place full of the history of long and dreary oppressions 
and atrocities. It i3 situated upon as pretty a spot as 



317 

is to be found on the globe, on an abrupt bank of lime- 
stone rocks high above the Danube, so that stretches 
of the beautiful river may be seen for miles, both up 
and down. Beyond this are the great plains of Roumania, 
fertile and beautiful, with herds of cattle flecking its 
pastures. Rustchuk, the former capital of Bulgaria, is 
a heap of Turkish dirt and ruins, for the Turk never 
cleans away any thing, he simply climbs up upon it. It 
would be hard to find a Turkish town of centuries old 
in which the accumulations do not cover the first story 
windows of the houses on the main streets — he allows 
even his mosques to be so buried that he has to make 
new openings in the walls fifteen or twenty feet, and 
sometimes more, above the original doorways. But 
since Turkish rule has ended in Rustchuk the city is 
going through a metamorphosis. The town council 
are appropriating old Turkish church properties and 
pulling down shanties, no matter to whom they be- 
long, if they are in their way, appropriating material 
in a manner that shows that they follow the traditional 
policies of the Turks, and are building beautiful houses, 
widening old streets, taking up the old limestone rocks, 
pitched in every way, which is a purely Turkish fashion 
of paving, and has no approach to it anywhere in the 
world except in Philadelphia's cobble-paved streets. 
So the new redeemed Bulgaria is coming up out of the 
debris of old Turkey, and if let alone she will be the 
wonder of all Danubian provinces. 

The same magnificent country continues down to 
Varna, on the Black Sea, for more than twelve hun- 
dred miles. From the Tyrolese Alps, on the north, this 
wonderful limestone foundation has held up the gener- 
ous soil with its wealth of fruits and its lines of beauty. 
It extends north to the Balkan range, and even beyond it 



318 

to the wheat plains of Southern Russia ; a country, which, 
if properly cultivated, would feed half of Europe. 
But the one-handled wooden ploughs are still used as 
they appear in the hieroglyphic inscriptions in Egypt. 
One crop after another of the same kind of grain, 
usually of wheat, has succeeded each other for two 
thousand years. No idea of fertilization enters the 
agricultural mind. The struggle has only been for ex- 
istence since the Turk conquered it, for if aught more 
were gained he took it. Dirty clothes and flapping 
rags were all that would throw him off the trail in 
searching for effects. The people dared not even clean 
up their houses or have any thing in them, because the 
Turk would take it. 

In this country then from end to end one sees mud or 
stone huts about ten feet high, thatched with reeds, or the 
stocks of marsh flags or bulrushes, with the ground for 
the floor, teeming with fleas and often reeking in dirt. 
These huts disfigure the finest country on earth. These 
huts are not scattered on their farms, but are clustered 
in villages, with crooked and dirty lanes between, 
sometimes paved with every kind of stone, the whole 
village properties being sometimes fenced with brush. 
The people are bright — more than bright. They 
have a better intellectual development than any of 
their neighbors, are industrious, and ambitious both 
to know and to do., They are physically superior, 
better dressed, and the better classes are more rapidly 
becoming European. In other words, present Bul- 
garia is like a bird putting its head out of its shell — 
only the head is out, the body is still fettered in the 
filthy prison house of the past. 

The common people are superstitious — slaves to their 
traditions. The Btdgarian Greek Church is a bundle 



319 

of dissolving ignorance, its life is malarious. Its priest- 
hood is, with few exceptions, ignorant, superstitious, 
lazy and low, and often conies out of the dregs rather 
than the heads of society. Most of them can do little 
more than read and write. They have no resources 
with which to instruct the people. The English Con- 
sul at Kustchuk said of most of them that one would 
not invite them into his house. He also said that 
when he first came into Bulgaria inexperienced he 
stopped at a village hotel, and desiring some brandy 
asked the village priest, who wa3 near him, according to 
English fashion, to drink also. The priest graciously 
accepted. After awhile the Englishman offered him 
another glass, which he soon disposed of. And again, 
before retiring, he determined to take another glass, 
and asked the priest again, who was about to accept 
when one of the people came to the Consul and whis- 
pered in his ear, "You are a stranger, and it is not right 
that you should be deceived in your hospitality. The 
priest you are treating is the owner of this hotel.' ' The 
Consul said that they were secularized, when not too 
lazy to work at all. It is not surprising that the people 
have been demoralized in the past, and that the great 
mass will continue to be for ages to come. But the 
uplifting lever, the disastase that will surely transform, 
is working in the apparently inert mass, and if left 
alone her regenesis has begun. The power of the 
native church must and will be broken, for it is hardly 
as progressive as Mohammedanism. There will come 
first a great falling away, and infidelity, because of 
the discovery of the worthlessness of the present 
church, will abound. But this will only be the dis- 
organization which must precede reorganization. Al- 
ready it is said that many of the young graduates 



320 

of the Kobert College are all at sea, having lost 
confidence in the native church, and having not ad- 
vanced to a resting-place for their souls. From one of the 
Professors we learned that sceptical tendency is not 
greater here, considering the difference in early train- 
ing, than in our own country, and if it were greater it 
ought not to be a surprise, for this is always the result 
of dazzling light let in upon the mind faster than it is 
able to apprehend the realities and relations disclosed. 
In religion, as everywhere else, there must be disor- 
ganization of error before there is reorganization into 
higher forms of life and its moral and intellectual 
activities. 



BULGARIA. 



THIS beautiful country, as God has made it, is to 
witness and feel the conflicts which will map out 
Europe for the next hundred years, if human judg- 
ment is worth any thing in forecasting the future. It 
is, as the Russians have said, the " Bridge" over which 
the forces in the future conflict for the survival of the 
fittest must pass on to victory, or over which the broken 
ranks of the defeated must retreat. This can be easily 
seen even by a study ot the map of Europe, and of the 
characteristics and environments of the nations com- 
pelled to mingle in the struggle. The daily movements 
of this insignificant principality are sending nervous 
chills through nations. Every trifle is telegraphed 
abroad and read with breathless interest. The nations 
are begging her to be prudent, to walk the slack-rope 
over the chasm without staggering. No people ever 
had so much demanded of them in the way of modera- 



321 

tion with so much to drive them to frenzy. She must 
please Russia, who will not be pleased, and whose 
emissaries are everywhere goading her to desperation. 
Turkey, like all broken-down families, must have her 
honors, and as these are all she has she demands them 
with punctiliousness. She has the passionate mem- 
ories too of her people to hold in check for the sake 
of prudence. Austria is constantly telling her how to 
behave lest she may embroil her in war. England 
lectures her on the necessity of good behavior and 
placidity lest she may involve her, and France is doing 
some things against her and trying to exasperate her 
by recalling her Ministers. Germany is working after 
the style of the photographer whose advice to a corpse 
which he was photographing was, " You may wink as 
much as you like, but don't you speak." 

These are Bulgaria's present political environments. 
How long she will wink without speaking she does not 
herself know. We shall be obliged to look to her past 
for the key of her most probable future. Bulgaria was 
inspired by the great Pan-Sclavistic idea, which has 
much more in it than most think, to start a small revo- 
lution. But it was not so much the idea of national union 
that gave her an impulse to rebellion, but instigation from 
Russia, who wished to use her to bring on a crisis in which 
she could get in her work according to her unfailing 
maxim, "On to Constantinople." Away back in the 
sixth century Russia planned, through a quarrel with 
the Greeks, to get her capital on the Danube. In the 
days of Vladamir it was the court question, nor is it 
strange that a woodchuck shut up all winter should 
like to sun himself at the end of his long imprisonment. 
Russia is not to be blamed for her instinct to get out 
on the south side without going under the guns of hos- 



322 

tile fortresses. So she stirred up Bulgaria by telling 
her the truth — that she had been and still was out- 
rageously peeled and wasted. She told the Bulgarians 
that they were akin to Servia, and Servia would help 
them ; that she herself would officer their armies, and 
if they should get the worst of it she would take a hand 
in the business herself. 

A few people in Bulgaria believed all this, only a few 
peasants, however, and men generally irresponsible, and 
the Turks soon pressed them sore, and Servia did not 
come up to time, and soon the extemporized army 
melted away. Then Servia thought she would begin, 
and the Turks soon finished her. Montenegro had 
more pluck than both of them, and came near using 
up a third of the Turkish army. As it was, they crip- 
pled it until it staggered in all the contests with the 
Russians. 

It is hardly necessary to recount the predestinated 
stubbornness and stupidity of the Turks in rejecting 
the conditions offered by the Powers assembled in Con- 
stantinople. The rest is well known. Russia espoused 
ostensibly the cause of Bulgaria and her little bantling 
Servia. She attacked Turkey at Ezroom, whether in real 
earnestness or as a feint it matters not. Then she crossed 
th Danube at Sistova, pressed through the Shipka Pass, 
defeated but not in despair, until she reached St. 
Stephano, not more than a dozen miles from Constan- 
tinople, and was kept out of the city only through fear of 
England and Austria. The treaty of St. Stephano was 
made. But the rest of Europe became alarmed, and 
Beaconsfield sent the British fleet. The Powers deter- 
mined to take a hand in the contest, which they had no 
right to do. As they had withdrawn from Turkey, 
they had no good reason for interference. But fear 



3?3 

always makes its own reasons, and a conference was 
called at Berlin, at which they proceeded to divide up 
the domains of a sovereign Power to suit themselves, and 
to denude another nation of all the fruits of her losses 
and victories. Nothing like it has ever occurred in the 
history of the world. We do not say that it was not 
the best for the greatest number, but there is only one 
precedent, and that was the division of Poland by Rus- 
sia, Prussia and Austria, and this was only analogous 
in one or two points. 

Bulgaria received autonomy, and the Sultan obtained 
suzerainty, and so it went on until Eussia did not get 
so much as she could hold between her fingers for all 
her blood and treasures spent, her victories and defeats. 
It was maddening to Russia, and led to the assassina- 
tion of the Czar Alexander, who never had any heart 
after the council. As the armies of Russia were finally 
beaten by diplomacy, she thought it cheaper to accept 
the situation, for awhile at least, until she could recover 
her strength. Her bitter disappointment was chiefly 
in the loss of Bulgaria, for she had fought for her co- 
religionists, and to be told that the end of the stupen- 
dous war was gained, " for, are they not free ?" was en- 
tirely too sentimental for a country governed by mili- 
tary ethics. So she thought to keep Bulgaria under 
her thumb, so that by one device or another she would 
still get it when she needed it. So she was quite well 
satisfied with Alexander of Battenburg as long as she 
could use him, which she did at the first. He was 
only a boy, then under twenty-five years of age; 

Russia begam early in shaping events, causes and 
effects to this end. Bulgaria was by the treaty of 
Berlin to be a constitutional monarchy. The leading 
spirit, it is said here, in the preparation of the constitu- 



324 

tion was an American bearing the name of Grant, a 
correspondent of the New York Herald, who was 
assisted bj a young Bulgarian, a graduate of Robert 
College, and both worked through the committee to 
which the work of preparation had been given. Russia 
encouraged this liberality in the hope that it would 
defeat itself, thinking that the Bulgarians had neither 
education to comprehend nor self control to carry out its 
provisions without falling into anarchy. But the Bulga- 
rians showed capacity for self-government which sur- 
prised and alarmed Russia, who then proceeded to use 
Alexander, whom she persuaded to annul this constitu- 
tion. But as soon as he perceived the trap, and how he 
had walked into it, he restored it, causing thus his first 
breach with Russia. He fell into no more, his German 
shrewdness and great good sense kept him awake. The 
next move was to have the Bulgarian army officered by 
Russians, which would have revolutionized Bulgaria. 
But Alexander found it better for his personal liberties 
and country to surround himself by loyal Bulgarians 
and get the power into his own hands. This problem 
was worked out in a strange way. It will be remem- 
bered that Austria refused to go into the Berlin treaty 
unless Bulgaria was prohibited from acquiring territory, 
thus forming a strong and menacing government on her 
frontier. So Roumelia, a part of Bulgaria, was cut 
off simply to please Austria. But Russia stirred up 
Roumelia to revolt, hoping to gore Alexander between 
the horns of the following dilemma, to wit, either to 
break the Berlin Treaty and incur the special hostility 
of Austria himself, and through her all the Powers and 
of Turkey with her rights, or to lose the good-will of 
Bulgaria, which was outraged at the separation, and 
sympathized with Roumelia as the body with its suffer- 



325 

ing member. The foresight and courage of Alexander 
on this occasion lift him among the shrewdest and 
boldest of European statesmen. He was in England at 
the wedding of his brother when the word reached him 
of the position of affairs which Eussia had created. He 
at once took the lead of his army and did the thing by 
which they expected to throttle him so quickly and 
grandly, that instead of bringing down upon him the 
wrath of the Signatory Powers, all Europe wondered 
and became enthusiastic over his splendid military cam- 
paign. Men would have been more enthusiastic if they 
had understood the nature of the obstacles overcome, 
which required executive genius as well as military cour- 
age and foresight. 

As soon as Russia discovered that her diplomacy had 
been defeated, and all her intrigues turned against her- 
self, she oppressed him in every conceivable way, 
stirred up the Porte to send troops to put the move- 
ment down and to occupy the country, and failing in 
this incited Greece to fight Turkey for Macedonia, while 
Servia was induced to fight her dear brethren the 
Sclavs, on account of whom Russia had espoused the 
cause of Bulgaria, showing what everybody knew, ex- 
cept the poor fools deceived, that the Sclav business was 
from the first a Russian humbug. England kept 
Greece out of the fray and spared Alexander from this 
danger. But Servia would fight in the critical moment, 
and Russia determined to crush Alexander by ordering 
home every officer in the Bulgarian army, leaving every 
company, brigade and division headless. But he was 
equal to the emergency, he filled the vacant places out of 
his own ranks, and what these officers lacked in knowl- 
edge and experience was more than made up by cour- 
age and patriotism. The war came and Alexander, as 



326 

all know, whipped the Servians handsomely. He was 
becoming too fast a central figure in Europe, the poor 
little Tom Thumb Prince of Servia was in danger of 
being beaten again in his own dominions. Austria inter- 
fered, in which, of course, Russia had a hand. After 
the war was over Russia wished to send back her 
officers to control the victorious Bulgarian officers, but 
Bulgaria and her Prince could not see it. The troops 
had fought splendidly, her officers had endured and 
suffered and conquered, and one of these, a graduate of 
Robert College, saved the life of the Prince by puttie g 
his own body before the blow. None but an unprinci- 
pled ingrate would permit such a supersedure. None 
but a fool would suffer his army to be deprived of such 
officers, besides he would have been a strong man who 
would have dared to dishonor his army by degrading 
his faithful and competent officers. This was the last 
grief of Russia; the kidnapping plan and its execution 
followed. Russia had nothing against Alexander except 
he was too much of a man to rule in Bulgaria at a time 
when her purpose was to bring Bulgaria under control. 
The last step was a dastardly outrage, which those 
who admire Russia and even pitied her that she lost the 
fruit of her sufferings in the war could not justify. It 
was a policy only fit for slave dealers. It overreached 
itself, for Bulgaria at the heart's core is professedly 
hostile, nothing that Russia did for her i3 now con- 
sidered a moment, and ingratitude has become a na- 
tional virtue. 

Now, the attitude of Russia is that of a constant rowel 
irritating to the Bulgarian body. Her emissaries are 
all over the land, watching for and making opportuni- 
ties to get her into trouble, that in some way she may 
profit by it. The high dignitaries tell her people that 



327 

R'issia would not disturb her ia her liberties, but Rus- 
sia must have Bulgaria as a bridge to future operations, 
or in other words, the most available way from Russia 
to Constantinople lies through Bulgaria, and as we have 
already said, Bulgaria must be the ground on which 
the nations will be obliged to settle their chronic squab- 
bles. England cannot afford to fight Russian advance 
in Afghanistan or on the plains of India, for then she 
would be obliged to fight with her left arm, the navy 
being her right in any conflict. So England must sur- 
render her position among European nations or fight 
in the region of Constantinople. Austria is by her 
position forced to succumb to Russia or fight on the 
Danube or Black Sea. And so for some cause, locality 
or affinity, here the gathering together of the nations 
must be. The crime of Bulgaria in Russia's sight ii, 
according to her own account, the quickness and daring 
with which she thwarted Russia's future plans, defeating 
them so that they have all to be reconstructed, and 
bringing her in hostile attitude on this account to other 
nations. The present effort of Russia is to drive away 
the Prince-elect, whom her official newspapers de- 
clare not so acceptable as Alexander, for he is a Roman 
Catholic, and the Greek Church is more hostile to 
Romanists than to Protestants. 

The latest move of Russia is to use the Porte to oust 
Prince Ferdinand. The Porte is frightened, but not 
out of its wits, for the masterly policy of Turkish gov- 
ernment is to splutter and do nothing. Turkey will, as 
far as possible, serve Russia, for she is profoundly afraid 
of her. The patience of the other Powers is understood 
by Turkey. She has trained them in this grace for 
ages, and will strain it again to the utmost. The new 
Prince is the grandson of Louis Philippe of France ; 



328 

his mother's great-grandmother was Maria Theresa, the 
famous Queen of Austria. He must have had some inti- 
mations somewhere of help, or that he would be let alone, 
or he is little less than a madman to undertake to rule 
Bulgaria against Kussia, Turkey and everybody else. 
The impression is that Austria has discouraged him for 
outside effect ; Germany will not trouble him if she can 
help it; England and Italy will not encourage any 
further disturbance, and the Pope will use his influence, 
as far as it will go, to seat a Papist on what may be 
a very influential throne. Besides, his mother is rich 
and influential, and has influential friends in Russia. 
The young king is a soldier by education, is German 
in appearance, fair and with a nose which beaks almost 
to his chin, a long lip and quiet demeanor. 

From an English gentleman who accompanied him 
to Sofia, and who was present at all the ovations by 
the way, we learned several important facts concerning 
him and his prospective future. The people on the 
way frankly told him that Alexander was king in their 
hearts, but as they could not have him, and it was neces- 
sary for the good of the country to have a Prince, they 
would support him, and if he was a good ruler they 
would love him. This was honest and a better recep- 
tion than if they had shouted themselves hoarse with 
" Long live Ferdinand !" He took the oath and started 
out on a career the end of which nobody knows. At 
the present he is drifting, and only paddling to keep 
himself from difficulties, first on one side and then on 
the other. He may make his way into a secure har- 
bor. We know no reason why we should wish him 
well or ill, for well to him may be ifl to the Bulgarians. 
If he rules for the Bulgarians alone Russia will proba- 
bly contrive to have him kidnapped. If he rules for 



329 

the Kussians the people will drive him away. He will 
in every event be overwhelmed with advice, and there 
can hardly be in the world of fortune a worse condition 
than too much advice and neither disposition nor ability 
to take it, leaving one to spin about like a weather-cock 
on the point of diverse public opinion. 

Already at various times the religious condition of 
this country has been described, so far as there is any 
religion in the question. There is plenty of what calls 
itself by this name. But there are certain other defin- 
ite movements, Christian in their nature, which are 
working results different from those now extant, which are 
as yet little more than leaven working on the edges of 
the mass, and these are worthy of careful description 
and identification. 

The American Board of Foreign Missions in the 
south has an independent work, called the " European 
Turkish Mission." The cause of separation from the 
parent society sixteen years ago was the necessity of 
using the Bulgarian language. There is one station in 
Bulgaria proper, a mission in Eastern Xloumelia, and one 
in Macedonia. At Samakov are two educational institu- 
tions — one a girls' boarding-school, and the other a 
collegiate and theological institute for the training of 
native pastors and helpers. The main purpose of all 
mission work is constantly kept in view, to wit, to help 
these foreign fields until they can take care of them- 
selves. But until then the home Boards ought never 
to let the control go out of their own hands. One of 
the be3t lessons taught the Armenians, ever too much 
disposed to find fault with the missionaries, is that as 
soon as they can support themselves they can govern 
themselves, but that absolute self-government based on 
outside support is neither grateful, safe nor wise. It is 



330 

very easy for them to fall into the view that they do as 
much work as the American ministers and ought to 
have as large salaries, and that if trusted at all as 
Christians they should be also trusted with the govern- 
ment of the churches. But the fact that a man is a 
Christian by no means proves ability and experience 
in ecclesiastical government. It takes most Christians 
a long time to be able to govern themselves and much 
longer to govern the church. 

As to the question of salaries, it is wholly relative. 
The Armenian minister can live as well as the average 
members of his congregation, and have all his necessary 
wants supplied on one-third of what will supply the neces- 
sary wants of the English, Scotch or American, and with- 
out which they would be unfitted for labor. Besides, the 
churches at home are bound to support their brethren 
abroad in an average condition with the ministry at 
home, else it is a snare to the church, a wrong before 
God, and an injustice to conscience, a reproach to the 
church before herself and the world. 

We have said this much on our own motion entirely, 
and at the suggestion of no one. If any exception be 
taken it attaches to the writer, who only advocates such 
equity as the different conditions impose. Sometimes 
one gets an insight into causes of frictions without being 
told of them, and it is with the hope of removing them 
that this word has been offered. But while this is tmr, 
self-control by an educated and tested native ministr-, 
and by the native churches, the missionaries acting only 
in an advisory relation, are the supreme ends to which 
all mission efforts ought to be directed. The helpers, 
as they are called, are novices, and are just what the 
name indicates — learners, both in knowledge and in 
the way to use it. They are preachers in training, if 



331 

they have the ability and zeal to fit themselves for 
their work, and when they have obtained the learning 
and administrative skill are put to pastoral duty, 
This will also indirectly show the necessity of the 
girls' school. Christian women of culture to be their 
wives are as important to the real progress of the gos- 
pel as the college and Seminary itself. But this is only 
incidental to other and greater results from the educa- 
tion of women in Christian culture. 

There is a girls' boarding-school in Samakov which 
has thirty boarders and fifty-two in attendance, and the 
progress of mission work can be seen in these female 
seminaries in greater force than in the colleges for boys. 
for we must consider in their progress what prejudices 
have enslaved women, which have relegated women, 
in ignorant servitude, to a hopeless obscurity. It is not 
many years since in some of our mission fields it would 
have exposed a missionary to death to have suggested 
the education of women. Now how does the case 
stand? Now even the Turk is pleased at the thought 
of his daughters being educated. This is not general, 
but true of representative Turks, and it will soon be 
general by the force of example and family pride, if 
for no better reason. 

These young girls, even when educated in the merest 
primary elements, show their superiority, and thus please 
their parents, make a sensation in the circles from whence 
they came, and are models to society. Many leave the 
schools outspoken Christians, and their influence is 
direct and aggressive, but if only generally impressed 
of the superiority of their teachers to themselves, and 
that this superiority is the result of the religion of 
Christ Jesus, they will have in their homes and 
social circles higher ideas of morals and of their relative 



332 

duties. Often they leave these schools, as they do in 
our country, thoughtless and apparently hopeless, so 
far as any evidences of practical religion can be seen, 
but the trutli3 which impatient teachers too often say 
"go in at one ear and out at the other" stick in their 
passage and wait there for those inevitable teachers in 
life, disappointment, sickness and death, to give them 
form, and when they do it is always proved to be in 
Christlikeness that these transient images were left. 
When sorrow makes them spell over again old lessons 
through lenses of tears they become fixed and stay ever- 
more. 

We shall never forget an incident in pastoral life 
which illustrates this point. We were requested to 
officiate at the marriage of a young girl who we knew 
came from a family intensely worldly. The bride came 
to the place where the service was to be performed 
giggling and so irreverent that we waited some time 
for her to compose herself. At last the silence was so 
painful that she became thoughtful. " The service over 
no more was thought of it, except that she was a very 
silly woman and that it was a great pity that a sensible 
man was married to her. Two years after a young 
man called, whom we failed to recognize, who said, 
"You married us, and I am on a sadder errand now. 
We had a darling little boy, the light of our household. 
He has gone from us, and we are heart-broken." At 
the funeral service we recognized the silly girl, dressed 
now in the deepest mourning. But what a change ! 
The mother had received a new life during her watch- 
ing over that dying babe, and the sad but wise lessons 
it taught. She immediately gave her life to her slighted 
Maker, of whom she had heard so carelessly during her 
girlhood's years, and became one of the most active and 



333 

devout in all good works of the church of which she 
was a member. It taught us the lesson never to despair, 
or give up teaching the careless, thoughtless and irrev- 
erent. Sorrow is the best of all tutors, and it is just as 
sovereign with half-trained heathen as with the thought- 
less who have been educated to no moral purpose in 
Christian lands. Just such changes have occurred ia 
the seed sown in this Bulgarian school, and will come 
again just as often as sorrow continues to moisten life- 
less seed with tears. 

We had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of 
Miss Cole, one of our own countrywomen, and from 
her lips learned valuable facts about the school over 
which she is principal at Monastier, in Macedonia, 
which is still a part of Turkey, but lies alongside of 
Bulgaria and is largely Bulgarian, at least in sympa- 
thies, though Greece is trying to get it away from Tur- 
key. This school is prosperous and has forty-five 
scholars, fifteen of whom are boarders. It is young 
but well rooted, and if there are not political disturb- 
ances which upturn and scatter every thing good, the 
work will be felt as described not only in Macedonia, 
but Bulgaria as well. Here, as almost everywhere else 
within the bounds of the present work, the apostle Paul 
went on his untiring missionary tours; we have no 
doubt crossed his tracks in searching for that seed sown 
in weariness and persecutions and tears, so long buried 
out of sight but soon starting into life again. The 
Word was once supreme, why may it not be again? 
More faithful is it to repeat, " My word shall not re- 
turn unto me void." In the Macedonian field, with 
Monastier as a centre, there are four outstations, all of 
which are increasing in numbers and influence. In 
Philoppolis as a centre there are nine outstations. And 



334 

with Samakov as a centre there are eleven outstations, 
out of the total of twenty-five, there are seven organ- 
ized churches and a total of four hundred and eighty- 
three members, of whom thirty-eight were added last 
year, which was one of great revival work. There 
were in this mission alone two revivals remarkable for 
their extent and thoroughness, one in Samakov and 
one in Monastier, both beginning with their educational 
institutions. There are five pastors, fifteen licensed 
preachers and fifteen teachers. The elementary schools 
are in the hands of the natives, and there are eight with 
one hundred and eighty-one pupils. There are eleven 
oidained American missionaries, one of whom is a 
physician, and a number of unmarried lady leaders. 
There are Sunday-schools at all the stations, conducted 
on the American plan ; two-thirds of those who attend 
the services attend Sunday school also. The children 
contributed to the missionary ship Morning Star and 
also to the relief cf the sufferers from famine in Tarsus. 
Eastern Roumelia properly belongs to Bulgaria, but 
on account of the desolations of war and political un- 
certainties benevolence has been retarded, though the 
war gave opportunities for personal mission work in 
barracks and hospitals. We can with good faith say 
that the work in Bulgaria is firmly rooted, but the dark 
problem of her future is still unsettled, and its conse- 
quent darkness discourages. If it were not for faith in 
God it would be paralyzed, for if Russia gets possession 
of Bulgaria the fate of the missions, judged by her 
present religious intolerance, would be sealed. But the 
roots are there and would spring up as fast as trodden 
under. If the nations will only content themselves in 
snarling and showing their teeth over this bone for a 
few years Protestantism will be too strong for even 



335 

Russia to exterminate. In any event she would have 
to give it room and make a truce with it or it would 
beleaguer her, for there are about one hundred graduates 
of Robert College in Bulgaria ; some are Christians, all 
are in sympathy with Christianity as the giver and 
sustainer of civil freedom to the nations. 



RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF BULGARIA. 

THE Greek Church in Bulgaria is rapidly losing 
all hold on the popular mind. Its strength is in 
the villages, where the people are ignorant and super- 
stitious, but it weakens in proportion to the size and 
culture of the towns. There was a downright revolt 
against it in many places before the Turkish and Rus- 
sian wars, and many of the bishops were driven out of 
their charges, but it was one of those ebullitions which 
end in nothing, for what is gained in casting away old 
oppressions if a people ally themselves to nothing better? 
What is gained, as the proverb has it, " in burning down 
one's barn to get rid of the rats?" It is not desolation 
the race needs, but reformation. The men of Bulgaria 
do not attend the Greek Church except on great patri- 
otic, state or military occasions ; only the women and 
children still adhere, and this is a force by no means to 
be despised, and unless a better faith can be given them 
it were better they should, for a poor religion is better 
than none. The Bulgarians, notwithstanding all these and 
other disabilities, are more accessible to Christianity than 
any of their neighbors, they are more brainy and manly 
and have more in them worth saving than any of their 
neighbors. Can they be reached ? Yes, for they have 
been reached with the limited opportunities afforded. 



336 

There are indubitable cases of genuine conversion of 
profligates, drunkards and wife-beaters, who have been 
reclaimed and are living consistent Christian lives. 

PUBLICATION WORK. 

There is issued from Constantinople for Bulgaria a 
weekly and monthly paper bearing the same name. 
The weekly is religious and political, and has an aver- 
age circulation of thirty-five thousand. A monthly 
illustrated paper for boys and girls, with a religious de- 
partment, had up to the war a circulation of three thou- 
sand, but has lost one-half through war adversities. 
Books, tracts, &c, are issued according to the state of 
the funds; hundreds of thousands of tracts are dis- 
tributed, but the books are sold. There are copies of 
the Scriptures, Commentaries, Evidences of Christianity, 
Bible Dictionary, Hand-book of the Old and New 
Testaments, Life of Luther and the Eeformation Ser- 
mons, Pilgrim's Progress and Hymn Books. In this 
publication department are found Drs. Kiggs, Barrington, 
Bond and Alexander. We are indebted for these facts 
largely to the Eev. Mr. Thompson, Jr., the efficient 
Secretary in this Bulgarian work. 

THE METHODIST MISSION WORK. . 

The Methodist Church was invited by the American 
Board to occupy the northern half of Bulgaria and 
accepted the work in 1878. Dr. Long, now a Professor 
in Robert College, was their first missionary. A life- 
long friend of the late Bishop Simpson, who always 
comprehended the situation and its needs and gave it 
his own hearty support, he was far in advance of the 
Church in his plans and supplies for the work. The 
trouble was in the impatience of the rank and file. 
They are used to send work and quick results in 



337 

America, and the slow sowing to be reaped a hal"f cen- 
tury hence did not always arouse popular enthusiasm. 
Another discouragement arose from misapprehension, 
which Dr. Long foresaw that he could not get the people 
to appreciate, was in the delay of the rebellion of the peo- 
ple against the Greek patriarchs and priests. As the 
old fabric was toppling the" enthusiastic, warm-hearted 
Church said, " Now is the time, Bulgaria will come right 
into the arms of the Christian faith." But those who 
know the effete people and their effete institutions, know 
that the roots of many a tree remain vigorous down deep 
in the soil, while the trunk is dead and falling down with 
its decay. This is exactly the case in hand, While the 
Greek bishops were expelled the institution was still 
there in the hearts of the people, they knew nothing 
else, and while they used the missionaries to help in ex- 
pelling the hated and oppressive ecclesiastics, they would 
not turn to them for any thing better. These facts 
were depressing to the home Church, not to those of 
its men like Bishop Simpson and others, who compre- 
hend and measure results, but to the men who gave the 
money. 

About this time India opened up with such wonderful 
promise and success that the full strength of the Church 
was turned thither. No doubt it was all for the best, 
for churches, like armies, will not thrive on sieges alone, 
they must have some victories to keep their faith and 
courage up, and India gave these. Notwithstanding 
these discouragements good work has been done in Bul- 
garia by the Methodists, but not enough of it for the 
present demands, and our brethren ought to send more 
men and money or they will lose a glorious opportunity 
and reward. The missions on the field are doing good 
work, but they might exclaim, " What are we among so 



338 

many!" Their present force consists of the following 
missionaries: Rev. Messrs. Challis, Lounsberry and 
Ladd ; Natives, Thoinoff, Economoff, Constantin. We 
believe they are all graduates of Drew Seminary, the 
first two being graduates of Robert College. We re- 
gretted exceedingly that we did not see the mission- 
aries Lynd and Lounsberger at Rustchuk, both being 
absent, but we heard of their work through Dr. Long, 
who has done more than all others in literary as well 
as ministerial service. He made a dictionary of the 
Bulgarian language which is the first step in the 
introductio-i of intelligent Christianity and its civilisa- 
tion. From him we obtained the following about the 
schools ; in Loftcha is a girl's school, in Sisfcoff and 
Sistova are Academical and Theological schools, the 
latter having thirty students, there are also schools in 
Varna, Rustchuk, Plevna, Lon Palanka, Locha, Se- 
velervo, Turnova, and about one hundred Sabbath- 
schools. In all school centres are preaching stations, all 
making fair progress. 

We have given enough, we think, of the political 
and religious condition and possibilities of Bulgaria to 
cheer the heart both of the Christian and patriot for 
her future. Though she may come up into it out of 
great tribulation she will conquer in the end, for all 
Europe, except Russia, is on her side, and her conflict 
will inevitably be that of all. This the people know, 
and it inspires them, not to idleness, but to the renew- 
ing of her strength. She is to show Europe, by her 
ability to govern herself and her ability to fight for 
herself, that she is worthy of assistance in the final 
struggle. The Bulgarians are a reading people, more 
so than any others in Eastern Europe. In every vil- 
lage, though the houses are often built of mud, is a 



339 

fine two-story building, the pride of the village, and 
that is the school-house. Their high schools are ad- 
mirable, their teachers being largely from Germany. 
While they were under Turkish rule and outrageously 
taxed, they imposed on themselves a voluntary tax, 
with which they supported independent schools. This 
will bring forth an intellectual regeneration, and if the 
church does its duty they will go together and will yet 
make Bulgaria the Star of the East 

ROBERT COLLEGE. 

Through the wisdom of that wonderful man, Dr. Ham- 
lin, who is ending his work in a glorious sunsetting, Robert 
College has a famous position on her lofty cliff. It can 
be seen far off on the Bosphorus both from above and 
below, and looks like a royal palace from the Asiatic 
coast. Unless it be Hanover College in Indiana, there 
is no College with natural position so grand. But 
beyond all others does her location figure in the thrill- 
ing scenes of ancient history. Darius crossed the Strait 
almost opposite, and from this hill he surveyed his 
troops. Xerxes made a passage across the Bosphorus 
near this spot. Mohammed the Second crossed here, and 
a tower and wall of his building are still standing. A 
Temple of Hermes was here. Back from the College 
on a little eminence is a monastery of Dervishes, whose 
house marks the place where the Mohammedans say 
the first martyr blood was shed in their efforts to cap- 
ture Constantinople. We saw the superior of the 
house, who tried, as far as his language would hold out, 
to be agreeable to the man from America. His face 
told the story of the fanaticism of this order, and while 
half-disguised in smiles, one doubted any very sincere 
intent. 



340 

The College is the monument to two noble men — 
Mr. Robert, of New York city, who generously fur- 
nished most of the funds, and laid the foundation on 
which will be built a regenerated race and a gracious 
church, and Dr. Hamlin, the head of a noble succession 
of men who are now bringing it to this expected end. 
Its values may be estimated as follows: — Ground and 
buildings, 875,000; endowment, $100,000; other gifts, 
$50,000; but Mr. Robert has spent on the College 
from first to last in buildings and in sustaining it, $250,- 
000. The building is of stone taken from its own 
property, is substantial, handsome and exceedingly well 
adapted, considering its size, to the purpose to which it 
is devoted. It needs another building, indeed, it will 
be a hindrance to the work if it does not have it. Will 
not some of our wealthy men or women who wish to 
make some fitting memorial to departed friends or for 
themselves, build it for them? for there is no monument 
to the dead worth any thing, in the estimate of either 
God or man, which does not promote the good of the 
race. Costly monuments in cemeteries are useless, con- 
demning alike the living and dead for want of a noble 
purpose, want of humanity and want of a becoming 
estimate of the virtues of their friends in the attempt 
to preserve them in cold, hard reliefs in stone. One 
of the signs of the progress of true Christian sentiment 
is the change that is taking place in our ideas as to 
the becoming way of showing reverence and preserving 
the memories of our dead. This new building is needed 
for a library and chapel, where the services of religion 
can be more effectively administered. The number of 
students in attendance is one hundred and twenty-five 
boarders and one hundred day scholars. It has already 
sent out into the responsible duties of Ufe more than 



341 

one thousand young men. It has now sixteen profes- 
sors and tutors. The language of the College is Eng- 
lish. Its graduates are occupying commanding posi- 
tions in the new states of European Turkey. 

There are religious services on the Sabbath which 
all must attend. At 3 o'clock there is a Bible lesson 
and a night service of prayer, exhortation and praise. 
The College was not intended to be a propaganda, but 
Christianity was to appear in all its work, and this is 
the end constancly kept in view by its devoted faculty, 
many of whom are known to us. We cannot, from the 
character of the men, doubt their Christian motives nor 
their modes of disseminating the truth. Dr. Washburn 
is widely known, and his fidelity is greater than his 
fame. We regret that he was absent during our stay. 
We saw, however, Professor Long, known alike favor- 
ably in the Methodist Church, where he belongs, and to 
Congregationalists and Presbyterians, who have been 
co-workers with him. We enjoyed both the information 
which he gave us and his hospitality in the midst of his 
delightful family. The inquiry has been started, and 
will be again, How far does the College incidentally 
contribute to scepticism? The question is, Is it better 
to give men light, even at the peril of stranding some, 
than to leave them in soul-destroying darkness? In 
conveying men from darkness to light some will be 
imperilled by the breaking up of old superstitions which 
have held the place of religion. But if even a few are 
bettered in the change this will be a full compensation. 
It is a fearful ordeal to young minds to find that the 
religions of youth must be given up, and many lie down 
and die where they were stranded into the light. But 
there are no more perils of this kind in Robert College 
than in our o^n colleges. And then who can tell what 



S42 

changes the future, with its sorrows, trials, pains and 
pangs, may bring forth to bring them to the truth which 
they heard so carelessly in their college days. Our busi- 
ness is to let the light shine, even if men are sunstruck 
and stagger from it, as was Saul of Tarsus, until sorrow 
sends some Ananias to say, " Brother Saul, receive thy 
sight." 



NORTH-WESTERN ASIA. 

DIRECTLY opposite Seraglio Point, across the 
Bosphorus, on the Asiatic coast, is a city known 
as Scutari, which faces Stamboul and the "Golden 
Horn." Near it is a little done-up village, Kadikeui, 
the once famous Chalcedon. It was a standing joke 
among the ancients that the people who took the side 
of Chalcedon instead of Byzantium were blind. The 
story got its basis in the story that when the Megarians 
asked the oracle of Apollo at Delphi where they 
should send a colony the oracle bade them fix them- 
selves opposite the " blind men,' ' and when sailing up 
they saw a town opposite this much superior spot they 
concluded that its inhabitants must be the blind men 
Apollo meant, and were assured of their locality. It 
was true then, and has been ever since, for Scutari is 
the blind side, as regards prosperity, of Constantinople. 
While it is beautiful for situation it is abominable in 
appearance, a tumble-down dirty old town, located in the 
midst of surprising natural beauty, only to show by con- 
trast what the Turk gravitates to when let alone. He was 
born natural heir to a sty, and if he is not forever in it 
it is because somebody has him by the ears. Here upon 
a lofty bluff the American Board has one of its chief 



343 

mission stations. It is the key to "Western Asia. 
From this eminence the Sea of Marmora, the Bos- 
phorus and " Golden Horn" lie sunning themselves in 
the subdued light of heaven. Eastward can be seen 
Bithynia, and the remnant of the old famous capital 
Nicomedia, and the Bithynian Olympus, clad in its 
diadem of virgin snow. To the east is a beautiful 
oulline, enclosing wonderful displays of natural beauty. 
But the survey is sadder than beautiful, for it is worse 
than a moral desert. If it were only an unoccupied 
desert it would be well, but its loDg and deadly growths 
must be exterminated before any thing better can be 
trusted to take its place. This is the hourly prospect 
before our brothers and sisters whom the church has 
sent to hold the outposts until she can conquer and 
occupy the space between. Sometimes we are half- 
puzzled which to wonder at most — the faith that 
brings men to Christ Jesus that they may be saved, 
or the effect of it, which takes them solitarily 
into these moral destitutions to save others. One 
feels rebuked and ashamed at the thought of the dis- 
criminations made at home, and the scramblings of 
both ministry and people too often to have their fields of 
labor in the midst of respectable, cultured, well-dressed 
humanity, asking more about the social position of the peo- 
ple in the fields to be occupied than of souls perishing, 
when the filthiest humanity in our worst places is better 
and more hopeful than the average in Asia, where loath 
some sins are nearly national, the names of which we 
dare not mention. And these places are chosen by the 
missionaries instead of the cities, where they could have 
some social advantages. 

Pastor Dwight, of this Scutari Mission, when speak- 
ing of the comfort of a little coterie of English-speaking 



S44 

friends about him said, "Most of the brethren turn 
away from the difficult work in the cities and prefer to 
go alone into the depths of the country, where they can 
have better assurance of the prosperity of their labors." 
There has been an idea extant that the body of mis- 
sionaries are below the average of educated men and 
women in the Christian and ministerial work in Eng- 
land and America. It was always untrue, but the idea 
does exist that they are rather good than great. 
We have been gratified at every step in finding them 
intellectually above the average of pastors in either 
country, and above, in culture, the men getting the same 
relative amount of salary in our own. country. The 
female teachers in the schools and the wives of mis- 
sionaries are cultivated women, and in personal beauty 
and attractiveness of the highest average. Indeed, some 
of them would in their own countries be the peers of 
any who are called the belles of society. 

The most prominent object on the heights of Scutari 
Is a Female Seminary, standing over against the palaces 
of the Sultan, an imposing building given to the care 
of the American Board as the memorial of a devoted 
husband, Mr. Capen, to his wife, and ia called "Barton 
Hall," costing about $25,000, to which is an addition 
nearly as large. These school properties throughout 
are worth about $60,000. In connection with these is 
a chapel, a large piece of ground, and three or four 
dwellings used by the missionaries as residences and 
school rooms, &c, adding $10,000 or $12,000 more to 
the value. All the properties are worth about $75;000. 
In this Female Seminary English is the leading lan- 
guage, and all the girls are instructed in the Scriptures 
and their personal obligations to God and man, as taught 
by the Protestant religion, and by precept and example 



S45 

all becoming efforts are used to bring them to a personal 
knowledge and vital union with the Lord. The teach- 
ers are not only competent as teachers, but in the high- 
est sense cultivated Christian women, who do not lose 
sight of the fact that literary education should be only 
subsidiary to the greater work of saving and educating 
the souls of their pupils. There was a medical depart- 
ment, but this was paralyzed by the change of the pur- 
poses of life of its chief instructress, who has entered 
another partnership, which requires in a narrower, 
though not less important sphere, her time and abilities. 
The building has the capacity for ninety boarders, and 
has had from fifty to sixty, and about as many day 
scholars. It receives from the Ladies' Foreign Aid 
Society in Boston $2,000 per year, and the rest of its 
support comes from tuition, which, including music, 
&c, costs $150 a year. The scholars are Armenians, 
Bulgarians and Greeks in about equal numbers, and the 
rest are Jews and Mohammedans. These girls gener- 
ally apply themselves to their studies with enthusiasm, 
and often graduate surprisingly well educated. While 
there is no direct effort to change their costumes, little 
by little as the idea of the eternal fitness of things 
dominates they do it themselves, their teachers becom- 
ing their patterns, so that when they go to their homes 
in the towns in the interior they become leaders in 
society at once, and whether professing Christians or 
not they are Christians in ideas and theory. This will 
be understood by many parents in our own country, who 
have been put through new ideas after the return of their 
daughters from college, both father and mother being 
reconstructed at once. The father, who has, according 
to old-time ideas, put his food in by his knife, is in his 
hoary hairs warned of dangers to his mouth and tongue 



346 

of which he had never dreamed. So he is to change 
all life's habits and learn under the direction of his 
sixteen-year-old prodigy to hold his fork, to butter his 
bread on his plate, and to eat his peas at the end of his 
fork, to wipe his mouth on a small table cloth, and to 
stop the suction process of eating his soup. He had 
resisted his wife and kept on in his old ways despite of 
her counsels. But alas! he must settle all neglects 
now. We heard one say with touching pathos, " This 
is what I get for my toil and anxiety in educating my 
daughter. All the tomfooleries of college are to be put 
in execution on me." 

Now this is the state of the case in the Armenian, 
Bulgarian and Greek households when the young ladies 
return from Barton College. The young miss hardly 
alights before she says, " Father, take off that sheep- 
skin jacket, you look like a fright. Take off those old 
shoe soles and wash those dirty legs, they look as if 
they had not been washed since the days of Solyman, 
the Magnificent, Brother Pete, get out of those hateful 
Turkish trousers, I can't abide seeing them flopping 
about; take off that belt and get European trousers, 
you are too ridiculous for any thing." The mother is 
subdued and a war is declared on the fleas and other 
like torments, and decency is installed, and all the 
neighbors begin to put their families and homes through 
a like discipline, so that it often happens that one college 
girl will revolutionize a whole town. Pretty soon the 
country people too, who always ape the ways of town, 
begin a feebler reformation until the college ways are 
seen all over a province. Nor is this all. Girls have 
gone home to set up the altar of Christian prayer in 
their homes, to read the Word of God to aged parents, 
to quote its promises in sickness and sorrow, and at the 



317 

grave's side to throw glints of heavenly sunshine across 
the dark places — to start inquiry into the wonderful 
words of life. These scholars become as oases in the 
desert. Congregations will gather about them in amazed 
wonder to hear the things which they learned in the 
schools. Minds and souls are enlightened and their 
convictions dropped into the dark places, as a stone 
into a stagnant pool, which at first disturbs its surface 
with a bubble, but soon creates circles, at first broken 
and confused, and then more and more perfect and wide- 
spreading until their pulses are felt on every shore. To 
give a digit of the beneficent work of the American 
Board, she has four hundred schools, sixteen thousand 
scholars, and yet there are Congregation alists, as there 
are Presbyterians, listening to the stupid taunt that 
"Foreign Missionary work has been a failure, and it 
takes five dollars to get one dollar to the field." We 
wish either higher conversion or everlasting sterility to 
all this race of croakers. 

There is a marked departure from the old policies in 
the matter of language. Henceforth the English is to 
become supreme, as it ought to be. Men and women 
ought now to be educated in the native languages to 
oversee the work — to be bishops, for here only a bishop 
is needed. All other teaching, as fast as the change can 
be made without inconsiderate violence, ought to be in 
English, as the commerce of the world is in English. 
It is becoming the fashion in Europe. In Germany, 
men and women are not considered educated without 
it ; thi3 is known to heathen natives who can easily ac- 
quire it, more easily than our missionaries can learn 
their tongues. Then when they speak and read Eng- 
lish, the missionary can command the situation, and 
the Protestant Church is master, and the doctrines of 



348 

the "Word of God will hold a supreme place. So the 
American Board is not only working wisely but surely 
in this direction. In their theological seminary at 
Marsovan, the school of the Western Mission is chang- 
ing its instruction into English. This school has a 
property worth about $60,000, consisting of a prepara- 
tory department, three missionary houses, seminary 
building and girl's boarding school with two hundred 
scholars, twenty-five theologues and forty students in 
the girl's seminary. And here is a remarkable mani- 
festation of the philosophy of Christian life, or the gos- 
pel mode made practical. Lot would in all probability 
have been a decent man but for that graceless wife. 
Even Abraham would have been better if his wife had 
given up her innate idolatry. What we mean by this is 
to show how much a Christian wife, who tends the altar 
fires with the ardor of Christian love, is to a minister, 
Christian or missionary. One of the fathers, whether 
ancient or modern is not known, is said to have re- 
marked in a sermon on the excuses offered in the para- 
ble of the great feast. After disposing of the first two 
he said, " Finally, brethren, an irreligious wife can drag 
a man faster to perdition than three yokes of oxen." 
He might safely have added twenty. 

Hearing once the fine speeches of the young men of 
Lincoln University and observing the unmistakable evi- 
dences of culture, a lady at our side said, " But who are 
these cultured young men to marry? This is the 
question of their future. Will they marry coarse, un- 
educated and unrefined women below them in every 
thing, who cannot appreciate their husbands' literary 
tastes nor their cultivated ardor for Christ's work? 
These women will neutralize half the labor bestowed 
upon them.' ' We have thought about her remarks ever 



349 

since. But the American Board has not only thought 
about its dangers but solved the problem of their supply, 
besides adding in helpfulness to their work, by having 
schools in Asia, and wherever else they have schools, to 
educate helpers, they have also schools for the educa- 
tion of female helpers to be wives abreast with 
their husbands in mental and moral culture, so that 
the native minister's home may be a model Christian 
home, and that their piety and Christian nobility may 
be sustained by cultivated Christian wives. The 
American Board in Europe and Asia have three 
central mission stations, and from these centres outsta- 
tions or preaching places where there are churches and 
schools. 

There is in the chapel in the Mission of Scutari 
Armenian preaching service at 10 i A. M., which we 
attended, and while it was in a strange language the 
Spirit of God conveys much truth to the devout heart, 
and it is a profitable service to the pilgrim far from his 
own house and its services. He can commune with his 
Master, and with his own brethren, join in the prayers 
without knowing the words which are spoken ; for he 
and the people partitioned from him by language are 
one in Christ Jesus, and have the same soul-wants, sor- 
rows and sources of comfort, and the Holy Spirit will 
take the things of Christ and show them to each in his 
own tongue in which he was born. We heard the sweet 
tunes of home, some from the Gospel Hymns, which we 
have already heard in five different languages, and 
expect to hear wherever Christ's name has been 
proclaimed. There were present at this service about 
one hundred persons, and after this was a service in 
English to about forty persons, and precious it was to 
our hungry souls. Pastor D wight officiated and asked 



330 

us to preach, and in all our ministerial life there has 
not been so great a favor. It is an incomparable sorrow 
to the servant of Christ to be silenced from any cause. 
But this first Sabbath in September, when for the 
first time we trod the soil of Asia Minor and enjoyed 
the hospitalities there of our own countrymen and the 
fellowship of brethren in the same Christian faith, 
will be to us a happy recollection in heaven. Dr. 
Dwight waited on us in the true missionary style, and 
extended the invitation by which we were made ac- 
quainted with the work, and also kindly furnished U3 
with the facts appended, which embrace Western Asia 
Minor, Constantinople and the territory of the Western 
Turkish Mission, and show the comparative progress 
of ten years. 

1876. 1886. 

Stations 6 8 

Outstations 76 110 

Laborers — Men and Woman 

America! 66 64 

Native 167 232 

Churches 27 29 

Church members 1,311 2,196 

Eeceivecl on profession in the jear... 107 199 

Schools. , 138 

* Total under instruction 3,679 5,559 

I have also notes of the statistics of the four Missions 
of the American Board in the Empire (Bulgarian 
Eastern Turkey, Western Turkey and Central Turkey) 
for the single year 1885, as follows : 

Stations • 18 

Outstations 281 

Laborers— Men and Women... 

American 156 

Native 768 

Churches 102 

Members . 8,811 

Scbool3 408 

*Total under instruction 15 177 

* Including pupils taught to read at their homes, as a few adults are. 



351 



WOEK OF PUBLICATION IN TURKEY. 

This is the publishing centre of the American Board ; 
here the tree of life is shaken that its leaves may be 
scattered for the healing of the nations. As a field for 
missionary teaching and preaching it is not equal to 
others, but it is the brain and heart of all the rest. 
Here all moneys are received and disbursed. There is 
here a fine building with capacity and appointments 
sufficient for the whole work, which does not belong to 
the mission, but is the gift of generous men in New 
York for the use of the mission in all its work, and is held 
in trust for them by a Board of Trustees. It has in it 
the publication rooms of the American Board of Pub- 
lication, Bible rooms and also accommodations for the 
British and Foreign Bible Society. These brethren 
dwell together in unity and work into each other's 
hands at all tangent and helpful points, and the work 
done and doing is incalculable, and the grip of the 
Christian church by it on these heathen multitudes will 
never be broken. They have been so long here that 
even the Turks have made up their minds that they 
are going to stay. Persistent Yankees, with gimlet- 
ends to their purposes, ever boring in no matter how 
they are turned, backed by the Scotch with the stabil- 
ity of thoir eternal decrees, will not be ousted by any 
power short of omnipotence. The work of these faith- 
ful men has written its own record. 

The total amount of property of the American 
churches in the Levant Agency of the American Bible 
Society and the missions of the American Congrega- 
tional Foreign Missions is thus given : — Total property 
of the American Bible Society, $125,902 06. The total 
property of the American Board Congregational For- 
eign Missions, $420,642 74 ; Bible House, $98,204 55. 



352 

Total of all the property, 6644,749 38; Sales of 
American Society during 1886: — Total of Biblea and 
parts of the Scriptures., $7,846 01. Total of those 
sold and given, 905,299. Sales by the American 
Board of Congregational Foreign Missions of religious 
and educational books, $4,837 98. The property of the 
British Foreign Bible Society in the same building is, 
in stock December 31, 1886, £105,081 85, or in dollars 
$525,409 25. Sales by private agencies of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society of 1886, £722 94, or in 
dollars $3,610. And this is the moneyed result of less 
than fifty years. But still we hear shallow fools and 
stingy Christians saying, " Foreign Missions have been 
failures." A more maliciously ignorant statement was 
never made. Let all such add these figures together 
and honestly confess their ignorance and wickedness 
before God and man. Let Christians take courage 
for the work of missions, for through the most difficult 
period of their existence, when incalculable work has 
been done for the souls of men which God only can 
compute, and the seed sown which will take centuries 
to gather, the cause has prospered. More than a mil- 
lion of their gifts in capital are intact and still at work 
for Christ and his church. Let the people praise 
God. 

We are indebted to all the brethren for personal 
kindness and help in our work. Mr. Peet is the effi- 
cient Treasurer and Financier of the American Board. 
Drs. Pettibone, Greene, Barnum and Bliss are all effi- 
cient in their work and eminent in their places. 



353 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 

"T would be a symptom of insanity to attempt to 
describe Constantinople, and we will avoid the 
appearance of so rash an undertaking. But there are 
some things about Constantinople that would mark a 
man as a fool if he did not describe them. There is no 
city equal to this for natural position in the world. 
Nowhere are so many extraordinary conditions, fitting 
for imperial sway, gathered together. It was created 
to this end and can by no mishap get away from it. 
Northward there is a peerless country whose waters are 
tributaries to the Danube, which can find no outlet but 
through the Bosphorus. These are wonderful water- 
ways, bringing their burdens here, and they can leave 
them nowhere else. They are not only sources of un- 
failing wealth, which not even the devastating Turk 
can destroy, but bring each its trophies of beauties as 
well, for such waters lie nowhere else on the bosom of 
the earth. 

There is the Black Sea, enclosed in its bastions of 
mountains whose heads break the clouds into raindrops 
for its supplies. There is the Bosphorus, beautiful in 
itself, but beautified by its rugged coasts on both Euro- 
pean and Asiatic sides. The Golden Horn is more 
than its name suggests, lying in the midst of the city 
and opening out into that wonderful Sea of Marmora 
so famed in all history, so old yet so beautiful in its age, 
the scene of the most stirring events of earth. And from 
here all are poured out as by an Omnipotent hand, which 
compresses all into a watery thread in the far-famed 



354 

Dardanelles; as if all the world were to learn that 
nature had one spot where national navies might be 
arrested and held at bay as floating toys. 

As to the coasts, one cannot so distinguish between 
their beauties as to give one the supremacy over the 
other, and even imagination is bewildered. The con- 
formation of the city is solitary and unique. It is not 
seated on thrones of hills in figure but in fact, and 
these are so related to each other that the general effect 
of all is heightened. Each is to the city what a dome is 
to a cathedral, and upon each is located some object of 
interest. Palaces adorn the river on the side of Galata 
and Pera. On the Bosphorus is a palace built on a 
platform rising from the sea, in which the Turks say is 
imprisoned the insane Sultan who was deposed in 1876, 
but this our readsrs are not obliged to believe on our 
authority, the sources are only Turkish, and he may 
have gone to his celestial houris years ago. All along 
are Turkish establishments almost as gorgeous in ap- 
pearance as the palace. Pera is the division of the city 
extending up the mountain on the Galata side, which 
at one point comes down to the sea, but farther down 
recedes in the form of a crescent and takes to its dirty 
bosom the bodies of the thousands who have defiled it. 
All up the sides of the mountain are the narrow rocky 
lanes, supposed to be streets, crooked as the ideas of a 
Turk and as filthy as he. Galata was so-called probably 
from the Gallse, Gauls (or Gallatians), who had occupied 
the neighboring regions of Asia Minor not long after the 
time of Alexander the Great, and some of whom had 
settled there. This is the part at the foot of the hill 
down to the water's edge ; full of all kinds of cattle, 
human beings, creeping things and bad smells. It was 
a mere suburb in Roman times and bore the name of 



355 

Lycse, the Fig Trees. In the middle ages it became 
the seat of a fortress-colony of the Genoese, who carried 
on a great trade on these seas and had their forts and 
factories all around the Euxine. 

Crowning the hill or mountain above is the castle of 
Galata, an object identifying the district in every 
other part of the city, and as far as vision reaches 
in Asia. It is the work of the Genoese during their 
occupancy. A little to the west of this is the Euro- 
pean quarter, the finest in the city, but in Western 
Europe it would not be much thought of. The 
streets are perhaps a few feet wider, but just as crooked 
as in other parts, though the crooks are not so 
frequent. But in this city it is wonderfully refreshing; 
one goes up there to get his ideas out of twist and 
tangle, to know whether he is in the body or out of it. 
It is a relief as a place to recall one's identity, and to set- 
tle belongings moral, mental and physical. Here are the 
great houses of the. European ambassadors and con- 
sulates, and here the American Consul is supposed to 
live, but there is no token of national life except a small 
sign. There was no flag out, a thing so grateful to the 
American patriot ; if we could only have seen this we 
could have borne our grief at not seeing the Consul. 
There was a Greek or Armenian in the house who 
could grant a pass to get out of Constantinople at 
sixteen "somethings" in Turkish money; we never 
knew how much and do not care to remember. 

Let any of our friends who intend visiting Turkey 
anywhere understand that they must have passports 
vised, and local permits to get out as well as to get in. 
Examinations and delays are numerous, with fees put 
into official palms stretched out from behind until 
he wishes he were dead. The dogs of Constantinople 



356 

are the only natives that we have met who do not 
cheat the stranger. We must solemnly declare, in 
justice to these much despised and kicked and thumped 
Turkish dogs, that they give their service full and free, 
and to your utmost satisfaction, and seem satisfied with 
what they receive. We never had the slightest diffi- 
culty in settling with them yet, though they usually 
have the last word. 

Let it not be forgotten in our generalizations that we 
are still in the European quarter, the only part of Tur- 
key which looks as well inside as out. The palace of 
the Sultan is on this side further north-west, and stands 
on a high eminence on this mountain range, buried in 
Oriental splendor without, and irremediable moral and 
physical nastiness within, so that "Sublime Porte" has 
come to mean sitting on a throne on the apex of the pile 
where the abominations are so unspeakable that they 
are sublime. The Sultan is as thoroughly cursed by his 
people as any tyrant that ever lived. But there are our 
own Europeans of easy conscience who say he is a good 
fellow and a man of high culture, which means that 
there is a thin tinted enamel on a detestable life. It 
is boasted that he is opposed to capital punishment, 
and this would make an idol of him in the eyes of 
humanitarians, but when it is considered that it prac- 
tically means that he will not sign the death-warrant 
for the execution of Mohammedans, but that you 
must not try him on anybody else, it amounts to 
little. As a result murderers and base criminals have 
an immunity and are constantly increasing in Con- 
stantinople and everywhere else, until it is not safe to 
travel in many parts. Brigandage has the highways 
in its control almost throughout the Empire. 



357 

The Golden Horn, about which we hear so much, is 
the little inlet from the Bosphorus which runs up into 
the land somewhat in the shape of a horn, and whether 
the term " golden" is applied to the color of the waters, 
which in the sunshine are as beautiful as the term in- 
dicates, or whether it has reference to the color of the 
coasts, or of the houses that skirt it, the prevailing color 
all through the Orient being straw color, we cannot 
tell. The guesses of any of our readers will be as good 
as any given, for the Orientals are a figurative people, 
and what is quite as remarkable, there is in their minds 
not the slightest need of any likeness or analogy between 
their figures and the things represented. 

Opposite to what we have been trying to describe, 
crossing the Golden Horn, is a tumble-down bridge, 
with piers of a new one decaying beside it because the 
Turkish government will not keep its contract with a 
French company who put them down. Across this is 
the old city of Constantine, which the Turks call Stam- 
boul, lying principally between the Golden Horn and 
the Sea of Marmora, and narrowing down to a point 
of land which was the site of the first Megarian Colony, 
and which marks the entrance from the sea into the 
Bosphorus. On this spot the fabric of history of 
thousands of years has been woven. For fifteen hun- 
dred years it has been the seat of empire, and for a 
longer time commerce hrs set its prow hitherward. In 
the future from her position, in the hands of new rulers 
and institutions, which must come, the ships of all 
nations will have to lower their flags, if not in defer- 
ence, to pay tribute. There is not on earth a peer in 
histories and possibilities, physically, historically, archi- 
tecturally, socially and politically. To see this it will 
be necessary again to call attention to its geographical 
advantages. 



353 

First and foremost it is on the watery link which 
connects the Black Sea with the Mediterranean, and 
is the line of separation between Europe and Asia, and 
thus it dominates two seas and two continents as well. 
All exports and imports of those vast and fruitful ter- 
ritories which drain into the Danube and those of South- 
ern Russia run past Scamboul within easy range of the 
guns of her fortresses. The north coast of Asia Minor 
and those fertile plains and hills around the Caspian 
must also come under her command. And in the 
future, when neighboring countries are opened up by 
railways, it will be the centre from which lines will 
radiate all over Europe and Turkey and the whole 
East. Already a line is being opened to the valleys 
of the Euphrates and Tigris and on to the borders of 
China. 

Seraglio point is the extremity of the peninsula of Stam- 
boul; a wall separates it from the rest of the town and 
it is near the settlement made by Constantine. It is 
surrounded on three sides by the sea and originally had 
a fortress on the land side, where the emperors dwelt 
and nursed their vices beyond the gaze of human eye. 
The Sultans kept here their harems and enacted dark 
deeds of licentiousness, treachery and murder. From its 
walls the last favorite, whose charms had waned, sewn 
up in a sack, was flung into the swift current which ran 
into the sea ; the victim having the Turkish choice to 
die or become a mermaid, according to her fancy. No 
palace ever existed which was its peer in crime, for 
none ever had such opportunities to conceal it. It 
became so terrible that its crimes seemed at last to pro- 
duce spontaneous combustion and a large portion was 
burned; that much of it was purified by fire, and we 
hope this is the first installment of a just judg- 



359 

ment. The Seraglio is a place to be trodden, even 
in its ruins, with dread. Its god is Malice and all 
evil, and its breath is so malarial that it poisons. 
It has a kind of beauty, but is a bedizened lie. 
It is now deserted, and all the life in it that could 
be punished for the sins of the past is that of the 
vermin, left to crawl over or hide in its walls, as blood- 
thirsty as those upon whom they fed when it was in its 
infamous glory. The Turk never rebuilds, so what is 
consumed is a victory for a future civilization, which will 
eome when he has destroyed all that can give him sub- 
sistence. The only living things, except the tenants 
described, are the old cypress trees, which cast their 
long shadows about as if anxious to be forever covering 
something that might start up from the shades of the 
past. 

In the Seraglio immediately beyond the mosque of 
St. Sophia stands a Turkish effort at a museum, and it 
is not wonderful that he who has destroyed on the earth 
the most beautiful things should not care to perpetuate 
their fragments. This marvellous gathering of odds and 
ends is the symbol of the Turkish mind. It consists of 
a bare room, opening upon a courtyard, in which lie 
helter skelter every conceivable thing — the remains of 
exquisite Greek art from the Isles and ruins of Asia 
Minor, statues and fragments of statues, stones covered 
with inscriptions, pieces of pottery and old wine and 
beer bottles, vessels of honor and dishonor, all in demo- 
cratic order, like the contents of an uncovered army 
pit, where officers and privates, horses and equipments, 
have been covered up together without a name to tell 
what they were, where they were from, or how they came 
here. The beautiful church of St. Irene, the church 
of Holy Peace, is in the most exquisite Byzantine archi- 



360 

lecture, but the Turks saw in it a peculiar fitness for 
an armory, and so all down the rare aisles and along 
the walls are rusty guns, swords and lances, and field 
piece3 in the midst. And so the Turk is seen again 
presenting the church of the Divine Peace as filled with 
the trophies and memorials of battle. Despite all this 
the place keeps a passing shadow of grandeur which 
the Turk can no more manage than he can the sun- 
light, and it is a point that will ever command admira- 
tion. 

The Turk can never be out of sight, nor out of the 
reach of smell. He is grand only in remote perspective. 
He heaps his offal on his most sacred objects and would 
dump his abominations on the prophet himself if he did 
not get out of the way. The mosque of St. Sophia is 
buried a quarter of the way up its sides in Turkish 
dirt. This accumulation is so high that to get down 
into it he has made steps of stones, pitched in, only 
equaled in their unevenness by the cobble-paved streets 
of Philadelphia. It actually made us homesick to go 
over them. The mosque, struggling like a giant with 
the defilement heaped upon it, is still a world-wonder. 
It is the only great Christian church which has been 
preserved without material alterations. It is the only 
building on the earth that will admit comparison, as to 
its grandeur, with the ideals of centuries. Its vast area 
is capped by a dome presenting the effect of a lightness 
that could only be sustained by wings. This is pro- 
duced by its flatness, its angles are so low that it looks 
like a thing of air. Dividing the recesses from the 
immense central area are rows of superb columns 
brought by Justinian, who occupied thirty years in 
building it. The most famous heathen temples con- 
tributed their treasures of marble, in the idea that the 



361 

heathen should be Christ's inheritance and the utter- 
most parts of the earth his possession. The Temple of 
Diana, at Ephesus, is represented in wonderful columns, 
and the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec, as well. But 
the Turk is always daubing every thing with his ever- 
lasting whitewash. This is the only thing he does by 
instinct, which he does well. The ceilings, so marvel- 
lously beautiful with their emblems of divine concep- 
tions set in Mosaics, a continuous design in these won- 
derful settings, the highest testimony in the world of 
the limitless patience of genius, are whitewashed. To 
keep the Turk steadfast texts from the Koran are in- 
scribed, and the letter Alif is said to be thirty feet long, 
though it appears only ordinary in size. This will give 
some idea of its height to the roof. 

It is impossible to describe the effect on the imagina- 
tion of this great church; it is simply awful to the 
superstitious, and wonderful in proportion to the man 
of culture. Even the Mohammedan service, the baldest 
in respect to sentiment on earth, awes and solemnizes. 
At the end next Mecca there is a niche where they 
keep the Koran, and in front stands the Mollah or 
priest, while the worshippers stand in long parallel 
rows down the body of the building, with an interval 
of three or four yards between. The Mollah recites the 
prayers in a sing-song, or rather a cross between the 
guttural and the whine, and the people follow repeating 
the prayers, accompanying with swayings of the body, 
rising and flinging themselves about regardless of every 
thing but their shoes, which they set down before them 
in rows, each keeping his " trigger eye'* on them lest 
his next neighbor may " cut it short" and get off with 
them. So he does his part well, both watching and 
praying. In their great feasts the building is crowded, 



362 

and then the clatter of feet on the pavement is repeated 
distinctly three or four times in the arches, and when 
the whole congregation rise to their feet with that 
strange rustling of crowds, those in the spacious 
galleries hear it again and again as the noise of a 
cataract, first in one part of the great dome, repeated 
until it dies in whispers, and then heard in another 
loud and vibratory echo until every section has gone 
through these strange repetitions, an experience border- 
ing on the awful. There is not on the globe another 
temple like it in any of its great essential particulars, 
none inspiring such solemnity by the aid of mere human 
construction. But as one looks upon its age-marked 
walls and considers what it has beheld and withstood 
of violence and slow decay and what glory has shone 
in it, one asks, is there any such fact as ages or divisions 
of time ? is it not all in this great church an eternal 
now? Here was celebrated solemn mass by the Car- 
dinal Legate of the Pope at the union, so long desired 
and so soon dissolved, between the eastern and western 
Greek and Latin churches. Within its walls the last 
bloody throes of the Byzantine Empire were endured, 
on the 29th of May, 1443, when the walls were stormed 
and a vast crowd of priests, aged men, women and 
children were gathered within these walls, hoping the 
sacred place would protect them. But there is no 
place but the grave where a Christian can hide from 
the fierceness of the Turk. The soldiers fell upon them, 
no condition excited pity; nor was that all, women 
and children were bound with cords and driven off into 
captivity and its spoliations, so that before the shades of 
night came to hide the infernal scene every vestige of 
Christianity was destroyed. With insolent pride the 
Musselman will still point to a peculiar formation in 



363 

the marble, in a column not far from where the great 
altar once stood, which has a faint resemblance of a 
hand, as the mark of Mohammed the Second's blood- 
smeared hand as he smote against it in triumph crying, 
"There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his 
prophet." 

The weight of the dome has spread the walls apart, 
and they have been supported by great buttresses built 
in comparatively modern times, and on these and other 
parts the Turks have built with their abominable soft 
bricks and yellow stucco, so that by his- dirt at the base 
and his plaster at the top the outside of St. Sophia is 
nearly obscured. There are other mosques after the 
same pattern, very beautiful, one of which, erected to 
Solyman, the Magnificent, would be beautiful a 
thousand miles away from St. Sophia. These white 
structures, domed and marked by needle-like minarets, 
produce an indescribable effect, subduing even the 
thoughts of inward ugliness and unspeakable unclean- 
ness. 

There is in the heart of Stamboul once a year a 
bloody performance, which would be permitted nowhere 
else. There is an order of fanatics indigenous to the 
East, the prominent phase of whose religion seems to 
be Persian, hence fire-worship is observed. They en- 
ter at the time of this celebration a court in which is a 
temple. All the premises the night before are a blaze 
of light, and what goes on within is only known to the 
initiated. The next day they collect to the number of 
about four hundred in the open square and begin a 
service which relates to three of their prophets, whom 
somebody in the past slew through ignorance of their 
divine claims, and for which a yearly atonement by blood 
must be made. This is done by forming a ring of about 



364 

four hundred, each pair holds the other by one hand, 
while in the other hand is a sword, with which they cut 
themselves. At the end is a priest inciting them to a 
frenzy of violence ; so they cut their own faces and 
bodies until the spotless white robes in which they 
appear are drenched in blood. Many fall faint and 
some die outright before the bloody, savage scene ends. 
It is said that the Turkish government contributes to 
its success. The next day the dead bodies are buried 
with great ceremony in Scutari. 

These are all solemn things, but as we, weary 
of the scenes of degradation, were jogging down the 
crooked streets to the bridge across the Golden Horn 
an occurrence happened which dispelled for the moment 
the sombreness of the shadows of the past. An old, 
fat Turk with a pair of trousers as white as snow, and 
a red jacket covered on the back and around the edges 
with gold lace, was sitting with his pipe in his mouth 
on a little donkey singing in Turkish fashion, whether 
of love, war or religion we could not tell. The donkey 
seemed to be enjoying the music; his ears dropped 
gracefully backward and forward and his dreamy eyes 
were well closed. But the thoughts of an Oriental 
donkey are not to be divined by men. Whether an 
irresistible impulse overtook him to lighten his bur- 
dens, or that he did not approve of the sentiments of 
the song, or whether somebody prodded him, we would 
not dare conjecture, but in a twinkling that great dig- 
nitary sat in the mud, six inches deep, and the hand 
of Mohammed the Second was not half so well marked 
on the marble column of St. Sophia as the rear end of 
his form in that slush. As he rose and rubbed his 
hurt the mud dropped from his bagging breeches, his 
red coat, gold lace and all retained the filth upon them. 



365 

Nor was this all. The dogs that infest the streets and 
belong to nobody, formed a ring about him, barking in 
what seemed mocking ferocity over his misfortune. 
To a Turk the immersion in street mud is no such 
dishonor as to be howled at by a dog. He kicked at 
them, displaying his ridiculous plight; they only pitched 
their chorus somewhat higher. He tried to get a stone 
from the street but they stuck fast. The contest was 
deepening and intensely interesting, and everybody 
seemed to be paralyzed by the situation, when a broom- 
maker charged on the hostile host with one of his 
staunchest handles. The sequel can be supplied by 
any ordinary imagination. 

There remains but one more division of Constanti- 
nople, the least interesting in most respects. It is the 
Asiatic quarter at Scutari opposite to Stamboul, the 
Sea of Marmora and the Bosphorus lying between. 
The passage of two miles is made in fairly good vessels. 
The wharf is a tumble-down affair. The place is all in 
decay, with crooked streets filled in with every kind of 
stone — pieces of columns, half-split capitals, polished 
slabs with inscriptions still legible, rough limestone 
cobble stones, the heads of Moslem grave-stones, and 
other curiosities of architecture too tedious to mention. 
But with all these strange mixtures in it, it is as im- 
posing as a whole as any other part of the city. It 
rises from a plain on the mountain sides, broken by 
ravines, the effect increased by their pleasing varieties. 

Among the most impressive objects is the Moham- 
medan graveyard, spread over hundreds of acres on 
the side of the bluff looking toward Stamboul and 
Pera. It is full of that most wonderful tree, itself 
full of suggestiveness, the cypress, which grows in 
Asia Minor to great height, needle-like in form, and is 



36% 

peculiarly Turkish, like the minarets on their mosques. 
There are hundreds of them, under which the dead 
Mohammedans of centuries lie. The Turks have the 
idea that they will yet be driven out of Europe, and 
that it will be better to He in Asia. We hope Asia 
too will become too hot for them, and as to where else 
they may find a burying field gives us little concern. 
The grave decorations are peculiar and suggestive. 
The standing of the dead man is indicated by the tur- 
ban or head-gear on the tombstone. Each stone of 
the higher order of society has a head on it, the sup- 
posed likeness, as far as Turkish art can conform to 
it, of the defunct individual beneath, and on this stone- 
head is the gear that tells whether he was judge, gen- 
eral or ecclesiastic. Many of these quondam dignitaries 
have no heads. Time has knocked them off, and the 
suggestions in the negro song, "Where now are the 
Hebrew children," come up as we hear in memory the 
verse: 

"Where now is John the Baptist, 
He went home without any head on, 
Safe in the promised land." 

The only other object of interest is a long yellow 
building on the Sea of Marmora, full of the sad remin- 
iscences of war and its horrors, heard in groans, seen in 
wounds and dying on the one side, and the blessed 
radiance of Christlike charity on the other in the per- 
son of Florence Nightingale, who first demonstrated 
that it was possible to give relief and mitigation to the 
sufferers in the hospitals which war fills, to throw 
the radiance of the cross upon their dying features, and 
to plant hope on the graves of the battle-field. 



367 



CONSTANTINOPLE IN HISTORY. 

N A. D. 830 Constantino, then Emperor of Rome, 
desiring to found a new capital which could be 
better defended against the barbarian hordes of the 
north, selected this site because of its natural strength, 
through which it had baffled him so long in his con- 
test with the Eastern Empire, then under the Em- 
peror Licinius. Another thought influenced him which 
has cursed men ever since, though it then seemed 
grand, and does so still in the eyes of those who adore 
state religious establishments. This was the founding 
of a new centre, which to Christianity was to be as 
Jerusalem to the Jews. Rome was full of the monu- 
mental remains of heathenism, and the new religion, 
it was thought, would gain a grander and more rapid 
ascendency in a new place where it would not be 
influenced by the presence of the tempting creations 
of idolatry. He gave it the name of New Rome, but 
his courtiers called it Constantinople, and this it will 
hold forever. 

The city immediately started into unprecedented pros- 
perity, and was more densely inhabited than now. Con- 
stantino lured the distinguished from Rome and every- 
where else by concessions made to commerce, so that in 
a hundred years the population had increased to more 
than two hundred thousand. Large sums were appro- 
priated to the erection of palaces, law courts, churches 
and other great public improvements . Works of art were 
brought to make it greater than its Pagan rival. In 
Stamboul can still be seen a brazen column in the 



368 

place which was the former hippodrome, now half 
buried in Turkish dirt, for the Turk knows no place 
for rubbish except the street. It is below the present 
surface twenty-five feet, and the column consists of 
three twisted serpents. It was brought from Delphi, 
where it supported the tripod from which spake the 
Oracle of Apollo. After the great Persian war the 
victorious Greeks made it a memorial of the captured 
wealth and weapons and shields of their conquered foes. 
The tripod has long since vanished, and the serpents 
have fought with men and time and have suffered by all. 
One of them had its lower jaw struck off by the battle- 
axe of Mohammed the Second. The heads of all are 
gone, but the lonely twisted column stands, the most 
remarkable and best authenticated relic in the world. 
In all reverses it kept its place, and may yet struggle 
with as many in the future as it has withstood in the 
twenty centuries since it was set up in the Pythian 
shrine. 

For more than eleven hundred years Constantinople 
remained the capital of the Roman Empire of the East. 
It was besieged in wars civil and wars urged by the 
barbarians. The Persians were its most vindictive and 
continued foes. The Arabs nearly destroyed it in cap- 
turing it and have been destroying it ever since. The 
Russians besieged it, having crossed the Black Sea in 
vast fleets, and only five years ago came within twelve 
miles at St. Stephano. All these former foes it re- 
pulsed. Once it fell hj the assaults of French and 
Venetian crusaders, who A. D. 1204 deflected their 
proposed expedition to Palestine to attack and capture 
it. They deposed the Emperor and put a Frenchman 
in the seat of the great Constantine. This was its 
greatest shame, and from which it never recovered, 



869 

though they were driven out, and in 1261 a native 
Prince ascended the throne. His territory was gone, 
his people weakened, his moneyed resources exhausted, 
and when the last most terrible foe came there was 
nothing but its hills, history and waters left. It suc- 
cumbed to the Turks in 1453, and thus perished the 
Eastern Empire. It was like the ark in the Taber- 
nacle and Temple in which were kept the law and tes- 
timony sacred, and when the dispensation of the law 
and prophets was pa3t the ark was destroyed. 

To old Constantinople was entrusted during the long 
ages that lay between Constantine the Great and Con- 
stantine Palseologus the Sixteenth, her last Christian 
sovereign, the keeping' of the treasures of ancient learn- 
ing. Most of the Greek manuscripts which have come 
to us and some of the most valuable of the Latin were 
kept in her libraries, and finally scattered by her down- 
fall over Western Europe. A succession of writers in 
a feeble manner kept up the traditions of Greek style 
and made records which contain almost all that we 
know of the histories of these countries of Europe and 
Asia. The flickering light that flared within her walls 
in her decline was spread among the Sclavonic peoples 
of the Danube and the Dnieper. Then followed the 
dark and dismal beginning of ages of eclipse, the end 
of which is still in the scroll of the judgments of God. 

From the bloody ending of the former chapter until 
now there is in this spot, once so glorious, nothing left 
but a record of deception, lying, assassinations, de- 
baucheries and cruelties indescribable, the blankest and 
blackest of all the Mohammedan courts. In Bagdad, 
Cordova and Delhi there was a feeble gleam of literary 
culture, not better than moonlight on an iceberg, but 
light even from the putrescence of decay is better than 



370 

no light. But in Starnboul the only light was in the 
glaring eyeballs of infernal fiendishness. Some of the 
Saltans, as Mohammed the Second, Solyman the Mag- 
nificent, were great men, and there cannot be human 
greatness denuded of all elements of goodness. But 
their goodness took no shape, only shimmered as sun- 
light on the face of a rippled sea. Of the majority of 
the Sultans there is no record except it be of their 
gigantic crimes. In Starnboul the monumental deeds 
of the long line of Turkish Sultans cling like malarious 
damps to the walls. Outside of the dark confines of 
lost souls there is not another spot with histories so 
thrilling, so secret and so appalling. 

From this historic city, so grandly situated, we made 
our way along the coasts of Greece and the Islands 
thereof. 



JEWISH MISSIONS IN FEE A, CONSTANTINOPLE. 

THE irreverent wit in America who told the story 
about our staid forefathers having a stated place 
in their prayers for the Jew3, and never varying from 
the order if the house were on fire, might tell it of the 
Scotchman, who is the only Christian friend the Jew 
has. He prays for him persistently and lets the world 
laugh. The Scotch Churches through all the ages of 
their own persecutions prayed for the Jew, and when 
they came out victorious they still prayed for him, and 
while the Jew was driven as the chaff before the wrath 



371 

of men the Scotch said, " He is of the household of 
faith and must be brought back again," and a Scotch- 
man always works in the direction of his prayers, The 
final restoration of the Jews is surely in the Word, and 
if there then the predestination of God toward them is 
signified there too, and the clear duty of his followers 
is to pray and work for this consummation. In this 
conscientious persistence we see the Scotch character 
clearly. A true Scotchman does not naturally take to 
any thing which does not dangle on the rim of impos- 
sibility. He likes hard duties, and the more the half- 
hearted world around him says a work cannot be done 
the more he determines within himself that it must be 
done. These features of Scotch faith and character 
account largely for the fact that their churches are, as 
a worldling said of them, "half daft about the Jews." 
When in London we tried to find the place of Kev. 
Grattan Guinness, where there is a Jewish dispensary, 
and where meetings are held. We engaged a Jew to 
guide us to the place. On our way he asked, " And 
you are after the Jews too, are you?" He said that every 
inducement was held out to tempt them from the faith 
of their fathers. We inquired, " Who are after your 
people hardest?" "0," said he, "the Scotch are the 
worst," and added that "even the English are led by 
some Scotchmen." The Jew was right, and we were 
glad to hear it from him, though he did take our 
money, and instead of leading us to the Jewish dispen- 
sary landed U3 at Lord Kadstock's place for Homeless 
Men, which was no mistake on his part ; it was an evi- 
dence of the genuineness of his descent. 

Our first work in Eastern Asia was done on the side 
where we have had the least faith. It was not only to 
find truth for our readers, but to confirm it for our- 



372 

selves that we went straight to the oldest missionary to 
the Jews in Constantinople, Dr. Alexander Thompson, 
who began twenty-six years ago a mission under the 
care of the Free Church of Scotland. 

Up the Golden Horn, about two mile3 from the great 
bridge which connects Galatea with Stamboul, there is 
a quarter which is occupied almost exclusively 
by Spanish Jews, descendenls of those who were driven 
away by persecution from Spain. They have two 
Rabbis, one a Pacha, a civil officer, and the other an 
ecclesiastic. Between the two the poor Jews were in 
former days as grist between millstones. They were 
ignorant, and were isolated, not only by their religion, 
but by their unfortunate nationality. There the young 
Scotchman sat himself down to teach a Spanish mission 
school, and the Bible and the Christian religion. The 
parents, seeing their children in ignorance, would gladly 
enough have sent their children to his school. But the 
Pacha Rabbi put the law in force against them, and 
the Rabbi ecclesiasticus so managed the torturing ma- 
chine that it looked as if the Scotchman would have 
to go to the wall. But he did not lose his wits, and God 
helped him in the emergency. There were Jews of 
other nationalities who had married Spanish Jewesses. 
These men were not under the control of the two Rab- 
bis, and they determined that their children should 
not grow up in ignorance. If the Rabbis would not 
furnish instruction they would get it for themselves, 
and with a spirit of independence bordering on defiance 
they patronized the schools, and their children made 
such progress that the Rabbis could not control their 
Spanish charges, and soon the school was crowded. 
The young Scotchman got his work in by putting the 
Spanish, their mother tongue, into Hebrew characters, 



373 

and these Scriptures became the text-book in school and 
so got into the families, and were read by the parents, 
or heard from the children, entirely dispelling from the 
minds of these Spanish Jews the horrible stories which 
they had been made to believe about the Lord Jesus 
Christ and his followers. When they found out the 
truth for themselves they were disgusted at the decep- 
tion practised upon them. Their Rabbis had studiously 
kept from them all ideas of the temple services and 
the fact that sacrifices had once been offered for them, 
and that now there was no more sacrifice, that the 
temple had been reduced to ruins so soon after the 
crucifixion of Christ, and that sacrifice is still re- 
quired. 

The teaching of the mission, without seeming in any 
way to antagonize their religion, had a deep and last- 
ing effect upon their minds. In the Spanish text-book, 
in Hebrew character, prophecies were quoted and their 
significance pointed out, and their fulfilment as well, in 
such a way as to stagger their unbelief. They were 
ignorant, and it was their great ambition to be able to 
say the prayers of the synagogue in Hebrew, only pro- 
nouncing the. words without knowing of their meaning. 
With this they were satisfied, saying, " If we do not 
know, God does, and it is all the same." But this 
teaching of the missionary, in their own tongue, showed 
them how worthless such a service was, and broke the 
yoke cf Jewish superstition from their necks, making 
them susceptible to the indirect influences of Christian 
religion, while their children grew up, as all pupils, 
to have more confidence in their Christian teachers 
than in the Rabbis. 

Dr. Thompson has also made school-books from the 
Old Testament Scriptures, illustrated. One begins 



374 

with the cosmogony of Moses, and followicg the divi- 
sions of geology and paleontology, he illustrates by the 
fossil forms discovered in several ages of the world's 
history the insect and vegetable life, of which there 
are pictures. These books have had, and are having 
considerable sale, and are used in some of the mission 
colleges as text-books. 

This mission is now in a prosperous condition for an 
Asiatic institution, there has been a fair per centum of 
conversions considering the difficulties of the work, the 
most of these have been faithful against the persecuting 
instinct of the Jews towards those who leave them. 
Many of the converts are in Christian work 
as ministers and colporteurs, and are faithful and use- 
ful. This mission is now under the care of Rev. Mr. 
Spence, of the Established Church of Scotland, Dr. 
Thompson having gone into the work of the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, but he still loves his first work 
and claims the soubriquet of " Missionary to the Jews." 

There is a second Jewish mission in Constantinople, 
in the part known as Galatea, which is ministered to by 
the Rev. Mr. Tomory, a Jewish convert, which is also 
prosperous. We visited it, and were greatly de- 
lighted with its workers and their works. The build- 
ings are near the Tower of Galatea, are large and in 
good condition, with ground enough to build a home 
for orphans, about thirty of whom are now in the insti- 
tution under the care of Mrs. Tomory. If they had a 
suitable building the number could be increased to its 
utmost capacity, and this is the most hopeful phase of 
the work. Day scholars have much of the Christian 
impression taken away from them, or neutralized, by 
home influence. But when they are for four or five 
years under both teachings and examples they become 



375 

fixed in their convictions and cling to Christianity 
with Jewish tenacity, "We hope the Scotch brethren 
will not overlook both the need and opportunity here, 
as well as in Buda Pesth, for this is the best outlook 
and outwork. 

The two day-schools are well patronized. We were 
conducted from room-to-room, beginning with the " littlo 
tots' ' in the midst of the kindergarten exercises of lifting 
their hands, patting them and singing, their bright eyes 
sparkling with delight— pretty children as the world 
has produced, and as seemingly devout, as they went 
through the attitudes of prayer. These Jewish chil- 
dren are mostly German, many Polish, and their 
parents do not permit their prejudices, to any great ex- 
tent, to hinder their children from learning what will 
be helpful to them in life and make them personally 
better, because it is Christian. One Jewish mother said, 
" I do not want my children to study alone in Jewish 
schools. I know there is good in Christianity, for I 
have seen it, and to keep them all the time under 
Jewish influence makes them narrow and exclusive, 
and they see and know only the Jewish side of life. I 
want my children to be good, more than Jewish," and 
there are hundreds who feel like her. Many of these 
children are born of mothers who themselves went to 
these schools, and they cannot be moved in their devo- 
tion. The schools have been in existence forty years, 
and a half dozen classes of mothers have gone from its 
hallowed precincts. The girls ranged from the kinder- 
garten, which was composed of both sexes, up to six- 
teen or more years, all were gathered together in a large 
room and sung from Gospel Hymns " Jesus loves me, 
yes, I know," "Shall we gather at the river" and 
"Onward Christian Soldier," their voices were young 



376 

and sweet — their German teachers had taught them 
well, not only in tune and harmony, but in the devo- 
tional spirit of praise as well. 

The German female teacher is remarkable for abili- 
ties, scholarship, enthusiasm, and unflagging patience. 
Those in charge can teach every thing, and are thorough 
and conscientious. Goodness seems to crown their be- 
ing and fit them for this kind of work, where not only 
scholarly fitness is required, but patient and enduring love 
to accomplish the desired end. The whole Bible is taught, 
the New Testament specially, and many of the children 
delight in it. As an illustration of the difference be- 
tween the loyalty of Jewish mothers and fathers, a lit- 
tle girl went home deeply impressed with the thought 
that it was the duty of the whole family to love the 
Saviour, and said to her mother, " I think I ought to 
love him, do you not ?" " No," said the mother. Dis- 
couraged she went to her father, who said, "Yes, darl- 
ing, if that is the way you feel, and if you will do it in- 
stead of talking about it." 

There is a morning prayer-meeting which is entirely 
voluntary. A dozen or more of these young girls at- 
tend and often tell the story of their devotion to their 
Lord, what hindrances they meet and how hard a life it is 
when love is suppressed and one must not tell of the object 
of its supreme devotion. About thirty of these girls be- 
long to what is called the Bible Union, which meets to 
read the Scriptures, encourage each other in their faith, 
to engage to read Scriptures, printed on a card, at a 
particular time, and to pray for themselves and friends 
and to seek out those prayed for, to lead them to the 
truth. Bible union is not only for school-girls, but for 
all Christian women. In the number are not a few of 
the former members of the school who are mothers and 



377 

to whom the moral and religious condition of their 
families is a matter of deepest concern. There are 
now in the school six young girls of mature age who 
have confessed their love for their Saviour, and others 
who are waiting an opportunity to face the wrath of 
their families. One need not go beyond the confines 
of these schools to fi-id martyrs and confessors. 

The boys' schools were next visited, and as we ap- 
proached all instantly rose to their feet and stood dur- 
ing the time of our stay, and this was the order too in 
the girls' school. A speech was demanded which, being 
in English, a considerable portion of the boys understood. 
But that all might understand the teacher interpreted. 
To the inquiry made for the boys as to how boys became 
great in America, the reply was given in a story about 
a small boy who wished to enter as a sailor on a great 
ship with the hope of some day being the captain. 
The captain asked him what he had done to give him 
fitness for a place on the ship. Hs said, "All last win- 
ter I sawed all my mother's wood, she is a widow, sir, 
and had no money to pay for it." " But," said the 
captain, "this was a manly thing, but I can't see how this 
will fit you for a sailor. Have you done any thing 
harder than this?" "Yes, sir, I went to school all last 
winter, and I never whispered once, because it was 
against the rules." " Well," said the captain, " You can 
tell your mother you can come aboard. A boy who can 
hold his tongue because it is right is fit for service on 
any ship, and I hope to see you the captain of this ship." 
Years after, when he died, he was the owner of a famous 
line of ships. The boys cheered and said it was about 
the right thing, but feared that if not whispering in 
school was the way boys got great in our country we 
had not many great men. The boys also sung, the 



378 

teacher taking the bass, while the air and tenor were har- 
moniously blended by the boys. In these schools the 
highest number last year was one hundred and four. 
In the girls' two hundred and thirty, making three 
hundred and thirty four with the twenty-five in the 
orphanage, and gives the outline at least of the work 
of this most promising mission. 

The Free Church of Scotland has three competent 
and efficient men in Jewish Missions here; men of 
faith, contented to work on patiently in the strength 
of God's promise and wait God's time for apparent 
results, or to let others harvest them. We have 
been impressed throughout with the remarkable fit- 
ness of the men for their places in the Scotch Mission 
in piety, learning, skill and patience. The superin- 
tendent is Rev. J. Henderson, a young man of superior 
abilities and culture. He has the care also of an Eng- 
lish service which is held in the chapel of the Dutch 
Legation, which is one of great importance to the Eng- 
lish-speaking people here. We shall not cease to bless 
God for the great blessing bestowed upon the English- 
speaking residents and pilgrims in most of the cities of 
Europe by the Scottish Presbyterian Churches. There 
is nothing more chilling to Christian spirituality than 
being away from the regular means of grace in the 
places where one has been wont to worship. Irregu- 
larity brings on spiritual decline and too often spiritual 
death; duties become perfunctory, and where there is 
no preaching in our own tongue an excuse is fur- 
nished which the enemy of souls never fails to use. 

The saddest feature visible in the Americans who 
are travelling is the utter carelessness of multitudes, 
even of professing Christians, about their Christian 
duties; they will neglect them and yield to tempta- 



379 

tions which would shook their sensibilities at home. 
Many fall in too readily with that maxim of the devil, 
" Do in Rome as Rome does." Many travel on the 
Sabbath, ride about sight-seeing and never inquire for 
places of worship. They go to theatres, but rarely 
to church. They sneer at Foreign Missions without 
ever in quiring for a mission. Their stock of mission 
opinions is furnished by vagabond dragomen, too often 
by godless Consuls or bloated hotel-keepers. Nor are 
our countrymen alone in this, for in Paris an English 
clergyman and his family took the Sabbath to visit 
Versailles, and another declared that he had left his 
ministry at the station in his trunk, and from his con- 
duct we were fully prepared to believe that it was much 
further off than his trunk. This is said sadly enough, 
and for the purpose of urging upon our Christian people 
either to send ministers to the places frequented by our 
countrymen or help to support those there of the evan- 
gelical faith. The Christian Church can well afford to 
help the Scotch Church in the support of her missionary 
preachers at Vienna, where so many young men attend 
medical schools, and so many of our people visit. 

In Constantinople is the greatest need of all. This 
service is now sustained by Pastors Henderson and 
Hennington, who are, without compensation, doing this 
work out of love for the shepherdless English-speaking 
flock. They ought to have a building suitable to be a 
meeting place for English and Americans, a general 
headquarters where they could go on their arrival and 
learn all that is necessary to their physical and religious 
comfort, where social contact, so desirable to travel- 
lers in foreign lands, with their own countrymen could 
always be secured. In this building should be a chapel 
for worship, and the pastor should be sustained. 



380 

There is a medical missionary belonging to the Jew- 
ish Mission, and a dispensary for the Jews alone, under 
the care of Dr. Hennington, an efficient minister in the 
Free Church and a skilled physician, doubly armed 
for his Master's work. Both hands have done con- 
stant and helpful service. He was a missionary in 
Africa until his health failed, when he was transferred to 
a work for which ministerially, as well as medically, he 
is well fitted. One of the saddest phases of this work is 
the desperately depraved nature of the diseases to be 
treated both among men and women, diseases infectious 
morally and physically in the extreme. Very often the 
poor victims would be turned away as hopekss, but 
they are healed for the sake of others whom they may 
destroy. We had hoped better things of the Jewish 
communities, so well instructed against these evils in 
their law, but alas ! it shows that they belong to the 
same sin-stricken and self- destroying humanity as the 
Gentiles whom they despise, but whose worst vices they 
imitate. 

There is also a dispensary from which treatment and 
medicine are given to the Jews only. The waiting-room 
will hold fifty, and this is often full. Before examination 
and treatment religious services are held, reading the 
Scriptures, explanative exhortation, and discussion of 
prophetic Scriptures. Another convert keeps the home 
in which are several young men receiving instruction. 
There is in this mission a chapel which will hold about 
two hundred, in which are two services on Saturday 
well attended, three on the Sabbath and two during the 
week. 

More might be said, but it will not be required, as 
what we have given, nearly all from personal observa- 
tion, will show that missions among the Jews are not 



381 

failures, and while the work encounters greater diffi- 
culties it has compensations and indubitable successes, 
and will have more if Christians will believe in God's 
promise. Of this banef of workers, long tried and long 
ago found worthy, is Rev. Alexander Tomory, who is a 
Jew, converted about fifty years ago, educated in Edin- 
burgh and married to a Scotch wife who has been his 
efficient helper in all his labors. He was a co-worker 
with the venerable Dr. Thompson in the founding of 
the Spanish Mission. 

Mrs. Tomory has established a home for Jewish girls 
which has at present twenty-five inmates, eight of whom 
have been baptized upon confession of faith. Here 
they have all the advantages of a Christian home and 
are fitted for self-support. Many girls of this home are 
now occupying positions of usefulness and influence. 

BIBLE WORK. 

Another most interesting phase of mission work in 
the East is that of the Bible Society. This agency of 
the Church of God is wonderful in its present results 
and in its certain future outcome. If the Christian 
Church had nothing else as the fruit of its labors and 
moneyed sacrifices in Turkey, this would be sufficient 
to show the duties, possibilities and responsibilities of 
Christian Missions. The English government may be 
very selfish in its policies, very tenacious of its rights 
and very ready to shed blood in war. While we 
have not the slightest intention of defending its for- 
eign political policies, we cannot help pointing out 
how God's providences have overruled for man's moral 
good in all of them. Mr. Gladstone in his speech at 
the reception of the silver service from America, in 
defending our country from the reproach of being 



382 

meddlers in British affairs because of their sympathies 
for the Irish people in their wrongs, said, " With what 
nation has not Great Britain meddled!" and after a 
pause added, " I fain would hope for the betterment of 
humanity." The apparently fruitless and bloody war 
of the Crimea would come under this category, for 
marvels of good are coming out of it. Before the 
Crimean war it was impossible to get the Scriptures in 
the hands of the Turks, but on the battle field, in 
camp, on transports, the British and Turkish soldiers 
and officers were thrown together battling for the same 
cause. The B ritish soldier did not forget that he belonged 
to Christianity in some form. He carried his own 
Bible, which he read to his Turkish comrades who, 
like soldiers generally, were so weary of the humdrum 
life of the camp that they would listen to any thing that 
might kill time. These Christian men carried also 
Bibles to give away in the Turkish language, which 
the Turks could not very well refuse, and when over- 
come with weariness would peer into them or listen to 
others until they became exceedingly interested in what 
they had never heard, but which suited their conditions 
of sorrow, sickness and dying. Then they began to ask 
for them, and two thousand a year were given away for 
two years. After this time they were sold for a small 
sum, and the first year the sale was two hundred and 
sixty copies, and now reaches about six thousand a 
year. 

This tells the story of progress, for what men buy 
and pay for they want, and when a man will buy the 
Word of God, who would not touch it twenty-five years 
ago, he is in earnest and his whole moral life is changed. 
As an example of hindrances in the way of giving the 
Bible to Turkey, a Turk who merely assisted in the 



383 

translation of the Scriptures into the Turkish language 
was condemned to death for it, and but for the inter- 
cession of the English Legation would have been put 
to death, and was finally exiled for the rest of his life. 

The Scriptures were translated into the Turkish lan- 
guage by a committee, half of whom were of the Amer- 
ican Bible Society and half of the British. The only 
one of our American translators recognized by us is 
the name of the venerable Dr. Biggs, brother-in-law 
of our most esteemed friend, Rev. Dr. Monfort, editor 
of the Herald and Presbyter. An edition was pre- 
pared of two thousand ; the faith and cash of the com- 
mittee stopped at that figure. But God confounded 
the good and careful souls by creating a demand which 
took all they had almost as soon as offered, while the 
people were calling for more all over Turkey. This 
led to the second edition, which consisted of seven thou- 
sand copies at six shillings each, and five thousand at 
three shillings. These were soon gone, and there has 
been a constant demand from this Turkish source of 
from five to six thousand copies yearly ever since. It 
would not be hard even for the sceptic to see the out- 
come of this, for observe that the larger Bible is worth 
more than a dollar and a half in our money and the 
other over seventy-five cents. We can get no such 
prices for the corresponding volume in America, and 
this dispersion by sale of the Word of God is an unan- 
swerable argument on the side of the progress of Chris- 
tian foreign missionary work. Men do not throw their 
money away on Bibles, if they do cast from them their 
opportunities. 

The work of this same blessed agency has been even 
more wonderful in Greece in view of the difficul- 
ties it has overcome. The Greek government con- 



384 

siders pioselytism as an attack upon the government, 
and punishes, as far as it has power, every effort to 
clean this sepulchre of moral rottenness. For the 
Greek Church in its present condition is only Christian 
in the name which it bears. Its corruptions and the weak- 
nesses they superinduced invited Mohammedanism into 
Europe, and the rule of Mohammedanism has not been 
worse, bad as it is, than the continuance of such an 
effete and powerless concern. An English Consul said 
that below the bishops in Bulgaria no one would in- 
vite a Greek priest into his house, "because," said he, 
"they are most ignorant and idle— the lowest of the 
low." Many of the priests are keeping low grogshops. 
This institution, utterly devoid of moral power, the 
Greek government has been bolstering up by per- 
secutions of the truth. But the Scriptures have 
been stronger than the Greek government. The 
Bible Society in Constantinople first sent copies to 
be given away by Christian men and women travel- 
ling and living in Greece. But many of these being 
destroyed in not being wisely distributed to those 
who would care for them, the Society determined only 
to sell. At first the books, being well printed and 
bound, were attractive and were used as school-books. 
But the government set its face against them and in- 
troduced secular books. Then the Society sent out col- 
porieurs, mostly Jewish converts, who wrought in 
Smyrna and about Athens and Thessaly, and now the 
circulation has reached 25,000 a year. 

There is another exceedingly interesting fact showing 
the opening hand of Providence preparing the way of 
the Lord. Albania is without a language suited to 
any religion, the Greek priests tell her that the gospel 
is too pure and sacred to be put in such a heathenish 



335 

language, so they read the prayers in Greek, not a word 
of which the Albanians can understand. The object 
of this is to unify them with Greece in worship by the 
use of one language and in the hope that they can thus 
absorb them. To do this they oppose all efforts to improve 
their language or to give them the gospel in it. The Turks, 
on the other hand, ^eekto deprive them of a language by 
which they could become a nation, for if they did they 
would soon want autonomy, as they are a bright, aggres- 
sive and brave people, so they are, as the proverb goes, 
"between the devil and the deep, deep sea." The 
Bible Society in Constantinople has already provided a 
translation of the Scriptures and is sending them into 
Albania, and they are beginning to be well received. 
They are taking hope that they will be unified and up- 
lifted by means of their own mother tongue, and the 
missionaries are looking for glorious results for the 
Lord's cause. 



CRADLE AND GRAVE OF ART. 

REECE still stands as a monument to the surpris- 
ing fact that a nation may be cultured to death. 
There is no more power in art and aesthetics or gen- 
eral civilization to create, sustain and perpetuate a 
nation than in pebble spectacles to restore sightless eyes. 
Greece was cultured out of all moral sense, and her 
splendid ruins only advertise the splendid failure. Paul 
was moved when he saw it wholly given to idolatry, and 
if he were again to stand on Mars Hill he would be 
moved again to see it steeped in idolatry bearing the 
name of Christianity. It has not made much improve- 
ment. In the apostles' time it reverenced its own crea- 
tions, which were, of their kind, triumphs of genius; it 
now worships a dead form of Christianity where there 



366 

is neither opportunity nor ability to manifest genius. 
The Greek Church cultivates nothing, either religious, 
moral or intellectual. "What intellectual progress is 
made in Greece is made despite of it, for it contributes 
nothing to this end. It furnishes an everlasting hum- 
drum of obsolete dogmas wrapped up in superstition. 
Here, as everywhere, its priesthood, with few excep- 
tions, are ignorant, immoral, stupid and tyrannical, 
having no thoughts above the lowest level, and can in- 
spire none, hence the cultivated intellect of Greece, as a 
whole, is sceptical, atheistic and scornful. It is there- 
fore about the hardest missionary field in the world. 
The name Christian, to the people, never suggests more 
than they see around them, and for this reason is scorned. 
This is no surprise, for they could not do much else and 
remain rational. Nothing depresses the Christian like 
surveying the ruins of those cities where the great 
Apostles preached. 

The Parthenon still stands and the stone steps are 
still visible on Mars Hill, but these are monuments of 
the heathen past, only four churches represent the 
teachings of the Apostles to the Gentiles. And yet the 
work of Foreign Missions cannot be said to be a failure 
here, for the seed has been sown, and there are contrasts 
furnished to the people between true Christianity, 
in teaching and example, with what claims to 
be the true church of the Apostles, which will compel 
reformation or cause the church to be cast aside as a 
thing with only the name of life while it is dead. This 
Greek work has had its vicissitudes, but while its 
branches have been stripped by adversities its roots re- 
main. The work has been mainly under the care of 
Dr. Kalopothakes, who is known to the Church in 
America, for he was educated in our country and or- 




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387 

dained as a missionary in the Southern Presbyterian 
Church. This mission was started by Dr. King' of 
the American Board in 1829. The contests into which 
Dr. King was brought necessitated the starting of a 
newspaper to defend the rights of native Protestants 
and to present their convictions to the public. Dr. 
Kalopothakes started this paper and carried it on 
through this crisis, and afterwards became agent of 
the Board. During this time the Virginians sent a 
regular contribution, which they continued until the 
war. Being left without support the work was trans- 
ferred to the American and Foreign Christian Union, 
and in 1873 it was dropped. Then the Southern Pres- 
byterians formed a mission and the work returned 
again into their care. 

Dr. Kalopothakes first worked alone, then with three 
helpers, and the work was extended from Athens to the 
Pireus, Valo, Salonica, Yamina in Epirus. The Greek 
ministers became satisfied that they could do more by 
carrying on the work themselves, and so Dr. Kalopo- 
thakes withdrew from the Southern Mission and asked 
the Southern Committee on Missions to confine their 
mission work to the Greeks in Turkey as, practically, 
they had no work in Greece. This has led to misun- 
derstanding and dissatisfaction. We were informed by 
Rev. Mr. Sampson, of Salonica, that the Southern 
Church has no objection to the Greek brethren making 
the experiment of supporting themselves, and were 
pleased with their efforts, but can see in this no valid 
reason why they should abandon the field, as 
the Greek mission effort might fail. The territory 
is too large to be cared for by those who would do 
a remarkable thing in supporting themselves. On 
the other hand, Dr. Kalopothakes and his co-labor- 



388 

ers think that the known fact of their receiving help 
from abroad from an organized source would cripple them 
and weaken their efforts to get the native churches to 
carry on the work as their own for themselves. 

The method adopted for continuing this work is 
primitive, but commendable, and works well. To help 
in the effort Dr. Kalopothakes arranged with the Brit- 
ish and Foreign Bible Society to superintend the work 
at Athens and Valo for one hundred and fifty pounds 
per year. Dr. Kalopothakes and his co-workers put 
this money and what comes from the people into a 
common fund, out of which is taken necessary expenses 
of each — rent, food, fuel, clothing, doctor bills, &c, and 
what is left is divided according to the providential 
needs of each, the size of family, &c. This plan has gath- 
ered from the people three times the amount of revenue 
ever received before. It is better for the churches to 
feel the responsibility of supporting their ministers, and 
appreciate their sacrifices in their behalf. It also 
frees the clergy from the charge of being mere 
foreign mercenaries, preaching for their salaries and 
having no heart-interest in the people. Under the care 
of the Board the native churches did not give even one 
hundred drachmas, now they give two thousand francs, 
and the ministers are satisfied with their salaries, though 
they are greatly less than when under the Board. It 
has also a good effect on outsiders, who supposed 
that the work was done only for money, but seeing 
these sacrifices, they realize that principle is under- 
neath. 

With $3,000 a work is done now in Greece which cost 
the Mission Board of the Southern Church $10,000. 
Since the separation there have been larger audiences 
and more additions to the churches. In the Bible 



3E9 

work there are from eight to ten thousand copies dis- 
posed of every year. The government is not unfavor- 
able, but the Greek Church, through its priests, both 
hinders and persecutes. Their chief difficulty is the con- 
viction of the oneness of the government and the church, 
so that if there should be any defection from the es- 
tablished church it would be esteemed disloyalty to 
the government — the same curse of the union of churcli 
and state, which destroyed the Christian Church 
founded by the Apostles, and made it more hopeless than 
heathenism. 

The native mission, through the direction of Dr. 
Kalopothakes, publishes a child's newspaper which has 
a circulation of eight thousand among the Greeks. 
They distribute tracts, a gift from England and 
America, at the rate of from 60,000 to 100,000 a year. 
Some of the missionaries teach, and some take boarders 
into their families to increase the common fund from 
which they all live, and if sacrifice represents any thing 
the work ought to take on new strength in Greece. 



AMONG THE RUINS OF THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 

THE ship reached the magnificent bay of which 
Smyrna is the crown jewel in the gray mists of 
morning. The sun saluted us from out of his curtains of 
tinted clouds. He had just come from Jerusalem, and 
still bore upon his bosom the images of Mount Olivet, 
Mounts Zion and Moriah ; his locks were still wet with 
the dews of Hermon. He cast his many colored rays 
over the beautiful bay, and to each craft floating on 
its dimpled surface he lent a smile and a welcome as 
he looked down from bis throne of hills, just as 
he did eighteen centuries ago, when the Apostle Paul 
came to it with his message from the skies. Smyrna is 



390 

by far the most beautiful of the cities skirting the 
Mediterranean — indeed, except Beirut, it is the only one 
worthy of the name. There is an ample and peaceful 
harbor with a quay to which ships could come, but the 
Turks insist that it is better to anchor out, and torment 
the nations with small boats and vagabond boatmen, 
in order to keep up a system of pillage, which is far 
firmer here than the Ottoman government. 

Smyrna, a clean, well-paved town on the side of 
the bay, is the most important city of Asia Minor, 
and before the Greek occupation was one of the Ama- 
zonian cities and fortified. It endured the vicissitudes 
of wars for ages and was abandoned four hundred 
years, but restored by Alexander the Great, tradition 
says, by reason of a dream in which he was warned to 
do so by the Goddess Diana. It had a school of rhet- 
oricians and Sophists and was called the "Forest of 
Philosophers." Christianity was early introduced and 
in it was one of the Seven Churches. In A. D. 168 the 
Christians were persecuted and Bishop Polycarp mur- 
dered. It has endured also earthquakes, fires and 
plagues. The present city is clean, well-paved and on 
one side the bay is a wall, extending two miles, of cut 
stone, with brown stone copings. But when the bay 
is rough the waves dash over it back to the wide 
avenues, in front of the first line of buildings. The 
pavements are of stone blocks about two feet square 
and the handsome buildings are of finely cut stone, or 
brick, covered with tinted plaster, generally of a deli- 
cate straw color, elaborately ornamented, the color be- 
ing mixed in the plaster, so that the tin tings remain. 
There is on the bay side, back from the wide avenue 
bordering upon it, a mile or more of splendid walls, 
new and now being constructed, inclosing gardens of 



391 

exceeding beauty, in which are fig trees whose bodies 
are twelve inches in diameter, with great outspreading 
branches fifteen feet from the body of the tree, gently 
drooping with their most luscious harvests. There are 
the olive trees, small leaved and thin of covering, a 
modest kind of tree, looking a little like our locust, 
but smaller, not growing high, but, like all real worth, 
unpretentious, full of fatness, the very marrow of 
health and strength. There are acacias of no service 
but for beauty and shade, and then, like minarets located 
for effect, the stately cypresses, the slenderest and most 
graceful curves in all vegetable life, running up sixty 
to one hundred feet. There are pear trees, peaches, 
apricots, oranges, with their fruit in every condition, 
from the green to the richest gold — grapes such as only 
can be produced in the dews and temperatures of these 
wonderful skies. 

In the spring there are flowers which are now gone, 
but others, tropical, are always present. Fountains and 
birds, birds of song and birds of beauty, songless and 
the nightingale. It costs nothing in the way of money 
to live here, but every thing in the way of privation to 
those who know better. Nature has been lavish on 
every hand, but man has done little except pervert it 
to his own degradation. In the midst of this beauty 
and bounty of God and of the abominations of man, 
who has been born and nurtured in it until he 
has hardly any conscience in any form, lives a company 
of our own countrymen and women, together with their 
kinsmen, the English and Scotch, struggling to awaken 
in this noisome sepulchre some feeble pulsations of moral 
life; they are striving with Christian heroism to make 
them see the difference between the right and wrong 
and to choose the right from the love of it. It is a 



392 

hard service done cheerfully, out of love, for no other 
reason except that given by the Apostle Paul, charged 
with madness for doing the same thing, "For the 
love of Christ constraineth us." 

There is no better practical evidence of the divine- 
nature and power of the Christian religion than this 
willingness to be exiles, all through youth and that 
part of life which has laudable ambitions, in a coun- 
try where the multitudes despise them and show it 
on all sides and occasions. These servants of Christ, 
knowing themselves to be superior, are yet snubbed 
by creatures who do not know enough to keep them- 
selves clean or to separate themselves from vermin, 
and are not morally better than the vagrant dogs 
that infest the streets. That they endure cheerfully 
all this until infirmity overtakes them, simply to 
help those who only look like humanity into bet- 
ter ideas of life, into better moral conditions, into 
decent cleanliness, is an argument for the sacrificial 
nature and character of the religion of Jesus Christ 
which ought, to men of common honesty, to dissi- 
pate all scepticism. These men and women are not 
ignorant fanatics, but graduates of the best Universities 
of America and England and Germany. They stood 
high in their classes, have mastered some of them four 
and five languages, have studied the philosophies of 
Paganism and the hoary deceptions of heathenism. 

The Christian women also conducting these schools for 
the heathen, where common decency has first to be 
taught, where inborn lasciviousness and deceit have 
first to be stifled, are graduates of our best schools, 
and have mastered these foreign language so that 
they can write in strange and to us unmeaning 
characters; they can converse in Armenian, Turk- 



393 

ish, Greek and Arabic. These things show the 
unspeakable ignorance and dishonesty of many at 
home who have not even a sense of right sufficient 
to do justice to the truth, and to honor those who in- 
tellectually and in cultivation are as superior as their 
depredators are shallow and unjust. The simple self- 
denials of many of these accomplished and really beau- 
tiful women touched us as no other demonstrations of 
goodness in all our lives had done. 

We were talking on shipboard with some from our 
own country and Canada, and asked them how much 
the American Board paid them ; they replied, " Four 
hundred and fifty dollars a year." " Are you saving 
any thing for the time when nervous exhaustion or the 
general breaking down of old age shall come?" "No, 
we cannot when we have naid board and for clothing, &c. 
When our girls are sick and are poor, as many are, we 
pay their doctor's bills, for how could we see our poor 
pupils suffer?" Others who get their thousands in 
America and England let the poor suffer, oftentimes 
their own employees. But these poor missionary sisters, 
who denied themselves of home, friends, country and 
all its opportunities, said, in simplicity, " How could we 
see our poor girls suffer in order to save something for 
sickness and old age?" 

There are in Smyrna several forms of missionary 
work. One of the most interesting is "The Kest" 
for sailors. It is a peculiarity of the English, the 
world over, that wherever they go, even to the ends 
of the earth, they plant some memorial of the Christian 
religion. The English may go with sword in hand and 
cleave their way into the heart of heathenism and their 
presence may be recorded in blood, but the religion of 
Jesus Christ, in some of its countless forms of sacrifice, 



394 

is left by them. They conquer, it may be said, for selfish- 
cess, but they hold their conquests for the betterment of 
humanity. Here both Scotch and English are working 
together to the same blessed end, that is the evangelical 
part of the English Church. The High Church will 
work with nobody and does very little ; no one here does 
aught but significantly shrug the shoulders when that 
name is mentioned. It is the reception church exclu- 
sives always have and ought to have. 

"The Rest" is one of the most hopeful agencies in 
Smyrna. It was originally the idea of an American, 
Miss West, who had been laboring among the Arme- 
nians in the East, but it has been realized by the Eng- 
lish in the form of coffee-rooms, with such modifications 
as the country and circumstances demand. It was 
made effective at the start, as we understand, largely 
by the former efforts with their results of Mrs. Jaffray, 
of Aberdeen, Scotland, who had been doing missionary 
work all through and around Smyrna, wherever her 
strength and Christian ardor would carry her, reading 
the Scriptures and persuading, as best she could, the 
homeless in the very words of the Master, " Come unto me 
all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest." The cry was directed specially to the Greeks, 
though all were welcome, and she found entrance and re- 
spectful hearing in the cafes where none would have 
pledged her security from insult. But God turned the 
hearts of these rough men by the conviction that she was 
doing all this for them, that she was not obliged to make 
her living in that way and it must be a work of love, 
therefore she was specially theirs and they were obliged 
to protect her. In 1879 this woman's work was concen- 
trated in " The Rest.' ' An exceedingly advantageous 
location was obtained and on it was inscribed, " Unto 



Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his 
own blood be glory and dominion forever and ever." 
The need for such a place will be readily seen ; steamers 
touch there from all points of the world ; its population 
is 200,000; 100,000 Greeks, 80,000 Turks, 12,000 Jews, 
with a mixture of Europeans, Armenians, Levantines, 
&c. 

" The Rest" was a success from the beginning, God 
overruled it and men claimed it as theirs, a place 
which their wearied hearts had long desired. In this 
rest a comfortable meal can always be had a little lower 
in price than anywhere else ; it has also a reading-room 
with the freshest literature, secular and moral ; a room 
for the workers, prayer and conference meetings. Bi- 
bles in many different languages are for sale at a moder- 
ate price. Books are put up in bags for the sailors going 
out on their voyages, to be exchanged for another bag- 
full when they come back, and as a general thing they 
return the books conscientiously and in good condition. 
The scroll on which was written, " Unto him who hath 
loved us," is spelled out and commented upon reveren- 
tially by the crowds who attend or pass by, and a 
Greek came one day and copied it, with which to de- 
corate the walls of his house. A lonely Jew who had 
been troubled about the Messiah was passing by and 
reading it said, " Yes, this is the place for me." These 
mottoes are so much appreciated by the people that when 
they are old and speckled, and are to be replaced by new 
and cleaner ones, they will beg for the old ones, which 
they hang in their own chambers. The working staff 
consists of a manager, two waiters, and a policeman 
who watches at the door to keep order. The manager 
is James Wilson, a burly Englishman, who had been 
for years a hopeless drunkard, rough, profane and un- 



398 

ruly, but now he is the impersonation of patience and 
gentleness. What interested us most was the fact that 
he was converted in the city of New York, and as we 
understand, in the meetings of that wonderful man, 
Jerry McAuley. God only can estimate the blessed- 
ness of that saved rescuer of the lost, for whom all 
mourned at his death. 

The Jewish work, ever near the hearts of our Scotch 
brethren, ha8 had a blessed manifestation in power in 
" The Rest" in Smyrna. Jews have gathered here to 
read the Word, and in contact with Christian thought, 
though indirectly, they have studied the evidences of 
our Lord's Messiahship and have attended the services 
more readily because they were in a coffee-house. At 
the first there was service every Sabbath afternoon in 
Turkish, and the room was filled, but before three 
weeks the Greeks were importuning for a service also, 
and their enthusiasm and determination were the occa- 
sion of the coming of the Rev. George Constantino, 
who was educated in our country, and is so well-known 
as a faithful and eloquent missionary worker through 
a long life. He was at Athens, but the call took him 
from what he had a short time before said was a hope- 
less field to a point where he has done the best work of 
his life. The Greeks received him with great favor and 
crowded the rooms. 

A few months since a mob, which had its beginning 
in a few noisy boys, but which rapidly increased in 
numbers and violence, stoned "The Rest," where Dr. 
Constantino was preaching, his house, where his wife 
was alone with a servant, the school of the American 
Board, and the houses of the native Christians. The 
windows were all broken, but fortunately no one suf- 
fered injury. The mob was incited by the Greek 



397 

Church, always jealous, lazy, ignorant and suspicious, 
both hateful and hating. The occasion was the uniting 
of a somewhat prominent family in the Greek Church 
with the Mission church over which Dr. Constantino 
is pastor. The American Consul, Mr. Emmett, imme- 
diately interfered, and telegraphed to the Turkish gov- 
ernment, which at once answered that they should be 
protected. Turkish protection means quartering sol- 
diers on the injured party, and this required the addi- 
tional expense of employing two servants to watch the 
soldiers, to keep them from carrying off all they had. 

It is a pleasure in this connection to record the ad- 
miration and gratitude of the mission workers for the 
American Consul and his defence of his countrymen. 
It is by no means the universal treatment which mis- 
sionaries receive at the hands of these officials, who too 
often show no sympathy with their countrymen, and as 
often in a contemptible way traduce them and their 
work, telling travellers that they are largely living on 
the substance of their misguided countrymen, and are 
doing no good. 

The work of Pastor Constantine is independent, 
though the American Board contributes to his support. 
The means to carry on " The Rest 1 ' is sent to him mostly 
by individuals, together with support given by native 
Christians themselves. It was thought that in having 
it independent it would better reach the class with 
whom he wrought, beside giving him a better oppor- 
tunity to develop the disposition to self support, and 
also the spirit of individual sacrifice in sustaining the 
gospel among them. The populace have had no idea 
of doing any thing for nothing ; they expect to be paid 
for caring for their own souls. This Pastor Constan- 
tine is trying to change and laboring to get them to 



398 

support themselves, and to do missionary service as 
laymen for love of the cause. Though his work was in- 
j ured by the mob, and by the attacks of the native papers 
terrorizing the people, still we believe it will come up 
all the stronger for its persecutions. But he has no 
helper, and does not know where to find the man to 
take the pastorate of the church in order that he might 
give himself entirely to evangelical services. 

We only regret that our space limits us, for the work 
is worthy of a half-dozen letters. It is producing fruits 
everywhere ; the very winds are its ministers carrying 
its seed and laying it down on sea and land in secure 
places, and when God calls the roll of the givers and 
helpers to hear the report of their labors, we can think 
of him as calling to the nations to stand up and give 
their testimony. Many in that day will rise and say, 
" I heard the gospel and accepted from ' The Rest' in 
Smyrna;" another, "I had a leaflet, when sorely tossed 
on the billow, which I read to kill time, and it saved 
me ;" another, " I was told by my companion up the 
mast what he heard in the house of ' Rest' in Smyrna, 
and I believed;" another, "I had a Testament and it 
saved me, and others heard out of its pages and it saved 
them ;" others had crumbs in the form of letters and 
texts, and others were cared for when penniless and 
sick, and as these wondrous revelations are made from 
out of graves and from the depths of the sea, and from 
the uttermost parts of the earth, would it be strange if 
the wonderful drama in the twenty-fifth chapter of 
Matthew will not in some part be realized? "Lord, 
when saw we thee a hungered or athirst," &c. 

There will be such a harvesting, for fruits have 
grown from this stalk. The truth has manifested itself 
in the desire and its actual accomplishment of restitu- 



399 

tion. Zaccheus has been represented in this home by 
those who made restitution of ill-gotten gains. Hero- 
ism in confessing Christ Jesus has been witnessed too. 
Here, where every thing is made of a good name among 
associates, and where a taunt withers men to the roots, 
Pastor Constantine said, speaking of this weakness, 
" I doubt if any of you have the New Testament, and 
if any have, you would be ashamed to own it," when 
at least fifty hands went up quickly. The desire to 
buy the Word of God is increasing, and if our people 
who let it be neglected would think what this means 
they would be ashamed of their estimate of the pearl 
of great price. The price of a day's labor is not more 
than five cents of our money ; consider then, after a man 
has supported himself and family at this rate, what toil 
and sweat he must put into one dollar and seventy- 
five cents to obtain the whole "Word of God. Yet 
there are thousands of such sacrifices made for it every 
year. Contribution boxes at the doors gather of the 
voluntary earnings of these poor people from fifty to an 
hundred dollars annually. The cause of temperance 
has its share in the general progress ; in the midst of 
abundance of wine at twenty cents a bottle, and as 
common as water, men and women drink water. A 
young man was reproached for his attendance at the 
gospel temperance meetings and replied, "All I once 
earned went for drink. Now I have two suits of 
clothes, money in my pocket, no headaches, no heart- 
aches, and this is what I have gained by attending the 
temperance meetings" Another said, "For twenty- 
seven years I have been a wine-bibber, a liar, a thief, 
and no one helped me, but at ' The Rest' I was taught 
my danger and sinfulness. Now I am a respectable 
man, a forgiven sinner, and a happy Christian." Gen- 



409 

eral results are unmistakable. "Do not be dishear- 
tened," said a prominent merchant ""We in the 
battles of life see what you cannot see in the missions ; 
your work is seen in the markets, on the docks, daily 
in less disposition to lie and cheat, less profaneness, and a 
purer conception of life's social duties." The enemy is 
also at work, but this in itself is an argument in favor 
of the work. Bands blow, monkeys perform, and hand- 
organs set up opposition. An advertisement was plas- 
tered over the walls of the city and scattered in hand- 
bills that a man on a donkey would, on the same hour 
as service, ascend in a balloon ; but " The Rest" people 
were in their places in full force. Sunday schools, 
night-schools, Bible classes, temperance and prayer- 
meetings, free conversational services, only partly make 
up the daily programme. Fully ten thousand people 
each year hear the gospel in some form or language in 
this place. How easy it would be for thousands of 
English and Americans to support such places, for they 
do not cost more than half as much as mission churches 
in either England or America. In the church of Pastor 
Constantine there are about eighty regular members, 
but in these heathen lands, as in Christian, a work can- 
not be measured only by its communicants. 

The work of the American Board is in good state 
of progress. It has here a valuable property of fully 
a half square, on which is a beautiful chapel only fin- 
ished last year, which is the preaching place for three 
services for each Sabbath, Greek, Turkish and Arme- 
nian. It has one or more Sabbath-schools. There is 
a mission house of the proportion of a small palace, 
occupied by the teachers and others connected with 
their Female College. They have just finished a large 
and elegant school building, with recitation rooms and 



401 

dormitories. The chairs and extension tables had just 
been received from Boston. We felt like taking them 
by the legs and giving them a hearty shake in the 
name of our country, which, with all its wickedness 
and shortcomings, is glorious in her work for the per- 
ishing in heathen lands. Beside these are other build- 
ings, inferior in style, and room for a building for a Bible 
and Book Depository, which will soon be built. The 
property of this mission aggregates more than $50,000. 
In the school there are thirty-five boarders and as many 
day scholars, who pay, if they are able, about ninety dol- 
lars a year, but many receive help. Dr. Bartlett has a 
school for boys, a new work, in which are several 
boarders, a kindergarten, in all amounting to about 
one hundred. Dr. Bartlett has been on the field 
twenty-six years, the best of his life being given in 
this self denying, wearying service, the rewards of 
which have ever been largely in the domain of hope, 
but in the first rays of his sunsetting they are begin- 
ning to appear within the line of vision. 

The Scotch are here also after the Jews, of course, 
who, when the remnant according to grace is gathered 
in, we shall expect to see coming up to their final in- 
heritance led by the Scotch. There is a medical hos- 
pital in good prosperity, under the care of Pastor Don- 
aldson. This work was retarded for a while in the 
death of Rev. Mr. Spaith, at whose service there was 
an average attendance of more than one hundred. 
This servant of our Lord had the confidence of the 
Jews and could preach to them with wonderful power 
and attractiveness. We are sorry that only fragments 
of this work could be gathered, as the superintending 
physician and head of hospital department were not to 
be seen in the brief time allotted to this mission. On 



402 

our way to the steamer we met Dr. Scot", himself a 
Jewish convert, who has, through his abilities, a great 
influence. He told us that over six thousand each 
year are treated. He is not an ordained minister, but 
does his work as a layman, and on this account has 
some advantages in his religious work. The workers 
in this field are able and faithful men and women, 
agreeable companions, and who made our stay delight- 
ful, and we parted from them with regrets, most of all 
that we should never see all their faces again. Some 
of them are nearly worn out, and we can only wish 
that the close of life may be serene, and that the toil of 
years for the Master may come in rich rewards, with 
angel faces to smile upon them and break the shadows 
of the eventide. 

Smyrna lies in a crescent of a mountain range. Near 
the top of one is a lone cypress tree, under which are 
the ashes of Polycarp, or rather, perhaps the place 
where he was burned. A Turk, with their usual im- 
pudence, built his tomb on top of it, and had himself 
buried in martyr ashes, perhaps only sorry that he had 
not had the pleasure of reducing them; or perhaps 
overwhelmed with the sentimentality of the lying 
prophet, who seduced and destroyed the nameless 
prophet of God, sent to warn Jeroboam after he had 
been slain, and then said with infinite coolness, "Bury 
me in the same grave." 



403 



EPEESUS AND ITS RUINS. 

rilfiE journey is made by an English, railway in about 
JL two hours and a half, the distance being about forty 
miles. The road is up a valley, which is a bed of pebbles, 
boulders and sand. There is not a doubt that the ocean 
waves swept through this vale for many ages. It is 
a valley of wonderful fertility. Vines cover the 
ground, and among these are scattered, like orchards, 
olives which are a delicate silvery shade of green. 
Here are the most luxuriant fig trees, hundreds of 
them, with their great notched leaves on branches fifteen 
or twenty feet from their trunks. The mountains on 
each side are covered with soil, and in the spring are 
rich in abundant pastures. But they are the homes 
of the brigands, who are increasing in number and 
ferocity under the effete Turkish government. They 
venture into the very streets of Smyrna, and by their 
allies therein they mark every stranger who may be 
thought worth robbing, or whose friends are able to 
pay a ransom. It is, therefore, somewhat perilous to 
visit the ruins, and will become, in all probability, 
more so, until there is a government able to cope 
with these brigands. 

As the ruins of Ephesus are neared the mountains 
open out until the valley in which are the ruins is en- 
tered, and at the point of entrance they close in so as 
to include a circular plain of probably five or ten 
thousand acres, with Mount Prion within the circle. 
The first object in view are the arches, about thirty 



404 

feet high, on which the aqueducts rested, some of them 
in a good state of preservation, while many are gone. 
The water-course can easily be identified, and its flow 
from the mountains traced, but at the time of their 
use there must have been far more water than there is 
now, for such a city could not have been supplied from 
any source now attainable. 

Beyond, on the east, on what the Turks call Ayasa- 
luk, is the Acropolis, a splendid ruin, Roman in its 
material and structure. It has been faced with marble 
and backed up with brick, which is peculiarly Roman. 
One is reminded of the same construction in ruins in 
Rome, such as the Baths of Caracalla. The destruc- 
tion of such arches, seven to ten feet in thickness, is an 
unaccountable surprise, but earthquakes, the storms of 
the heavens, and the slower but surer destroyer, time 
with its neglects, will account for it. The real desola- 
tion of this once magnificent city does not appear, for 
nature hates ruins and does its best to hide or adorn 
them. Life is always fighting death, and the ivy and 
myrtle will begin at once to cover up the wrecks of the 
past. God has appointed for all things graves or 
hiding-places against the time of catastrophe or of 
decay. 

It is a disappointment to find the ruins of the Tem- 
ple of Diana in the plain between the Acropolis and 
Mount Prion. A building of such proportions, to our 
ideas, would have had a much better effect on the moun- 
tain, but ideas, like men, are as changeable, and it is 
useless to speculate. This ruin was discovered by the 
English archaeologist, Mr. Wood, who at his own ex- 
pense has made most of the excavations now to be seen. 
The pavement was the first part reached from under 
eighteen feet of alluvial deposits, then tie walls, gates 



405 

and columns, most of which have been carried to the 
British Museum, There is little now to be seen except 
a great pit, half filled with water in the rainy season, 
but as we beheld it, full of rubbish and dry dirt, but 
the grave of the Temple is here, and as in all other of 
man's greatest creations, they lie down at last in the 
capacious bosom of earth. 

The Temple was of the Ionic order, with eight columcs 
in front and two rows of columns on the sides, these 
were five feet in diameter and thirty-six of the number 
sculptured. The Temple was one hundred and sixty- 
four feet wide by three hundred and forty-three feet in 
length. The whole structure rested on a platform 
nearly ten feet from the pavement. The Statue 
of Diana was made of wood and kept veiled. Accord- 
ing to the Apostle Paul, the Ephesians believed that it 
had come down from heaven the gift of Jupiter. On 
her head was a mineral crown, on her breast the signs 
of the zodiac, the necklace was of acorns, lions were en- 
graved on her arms to denote power ; her hands stretched 
out to receive all that would come. The Temple had 
large estates and immense revenues, and was an asylum 
for criminals and debtors. Its priests were eunuchs, 
many of whom were descended from Athenian Princes, 
and took the title of kings. The priestesses were vir- 
gins so beautiful that King Aristarchus, the Great, left 
the city to avoid their temptations, and all this is re- 
duced to skeleton fragments and powdered dust. 
There is not a graveyard so poor as this grave of once 
colossal grandeur. Only goodness is immortal. The 
poor Asiatic who surveyed it and was persecuted on ac- 
count of it, with his companions, lives, and the super- 
structure which they built on the rejected corner-stone 
remains, all else is dust. The destruction of this eighth 



408 

Temple is imputed to a decree of Constantine, dating 
between A. D. 341 and 352. While he may have 
issued the decree it was but the echo of that uttered in 
the last message from heaven to the seven churches. 
Dead orthodoxy, a sound creed but a cold heart, was 
its curse. The decree was written against a loveless 
heart, the same decree of death which the apostle Paul 
wrote as a postscript to one of his letters, " If any man 
love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathema, 
maranatha." So the Temple of Diana is gone, her 
statue is gone, Demetrius and all the men of his craft 
are gone and their shrines also, and the worshippers 
of the great temple are gone too. 

The pilgrim treads carelessly in its rubbish. The 
air is filled with clouds of dust, of the ashes of the 
multitudes who lived and died in the glory and decay 
of the wonderful city whose curse wa3 " Because thou 
hast left thy first love." On the south side of Mount 
Prion many tomb3 have been uncovered, and their con- 
tents have either b^eu carried away or have gone into 
imperceptible dust. Same of these have Greek inscrip- 
tions, and belong unmistakably to the Greek period 
in the history of the city. These costly tombs extend 
fully a mile, so that on this side of the Mount the dead 
have had a long sleep, but they have to go back into the 
earth with the rest, for there are no distinctions that time 
has made which time does not also destroy. It did seem 
hard that these old dignitaries, bef >re whom heralds went 
crying at their glorious comings, and before whom the 
multitudes bowed, who had such splendid funerals and 
were ambitious as to who should have the finest tombs, 
should be upset and their marble houses taken from 
under them, while strangers look into the sockets 
of their grinning skulls or profane hands should toss 



407 



them over into the common rubbish piles of centuries. 
The shadow of fallen greatness crept over us in sad- 
ness for the moment, but then the sense of the ridicu- 
lous, that mischievous intruder into sacred things, 
brought up the picture of the final helplessness of the 
world's great and rich ones in such light that greatness 
itself appeared like a farce, a Punch and Judy perform- 
ance, first for the world to stare at and then to laugh at, 
In Alexandria, when the English opened up to travel 
their railway to Cairo, it was said that the stokers upon 
the engines kindled their fire3 with the spice wood coffins 
and the mummies which they contained, and that they 
would say to their helpers, " Here, we have had enough 
of those plebeians, they don't bum worth a cent; hand 
us on a king " 

Appearing from the mountain-side are archways, 
whether they were highways or waterways or streets is 
not certainly determined, but under the rubbish of cen- 
turies lies buried one of the finest cities the earth ever 
bore on its bosom. Only little holes have as yet been 
made into its secrets, it would require millions to un- 
cover and years to explore. We may be pardoned if 
we deflect a little to give a short account of the guide 
who led the man who is trying to describe to us these 
mysteries. ¥7hen the railway was reached and inquiry 
was made for the hotel-keeper, he was absent, and we 
were left to the tender mercies of those Oriental vul- 
tures known as "guides," "muleteers," "donkey 
drivers" and their kind. We saw posted on the walls 
of the hotel that a horse and Turkish saddle was to be 
had for five francs, and the guide was five francs. This 
was settled as the price also by a bargain, but bargains 
will not last through breakfast here, and while we ate 
other counsels prevailed. When ready to start there 



408 

were three horses in waiting instead of one, one for the 
traveller, one for the guide, and one for the boy who 
was expected to hold the horses where riding might be 
impossible, We commenced an investigation at once 
into the suspicious proceeding. The guide was called, 
who was a little bow-legged, big-footed, squint-eyed in- 
dividual, with European trousers patched at all points 
of the compass, of whom we inquired, " What does this 
mean ?" 

Shrugging his shoulders in the usual way, he re- 
plied, " Nothing, nothing, monsieur, only a horse for 
you, one for me, and another for the boy who holds the 
horses." 

"How much do all these cost?" 

"Just what you wish to pay." 

"But this does not suit me, and if I do not know I 
will not go," and we then began moving toward the 
railway station, saying, " I do not want to see your 
ruin anyhow, its nothing, nothing." 

Then he said, " Twenty francs, and that is nothing 
to see Ephesus and the Temple of the great Diana." 

"But you said ten francs before breakfast." 

" Ah ! that was for myself, I am a philosopher, and 
Plato, like me, knows a great deal." And putting his 
hand to his forehead indicated the vastness of his 
knowledge. 

We imitated the gesture, putting the hand to the 
head, and said, " Plato walked, you are a peripatetic, 
you can carry your knowledge on your legs ; I am an 
Epicurean, I'll ride." 

By this time he was boiling with rage and screamed 
and gesticulated wildly saying, "I get fifty francs 
from Mr. Wood, the Englishman, and show him every 
thing." 



409 

"Very well, I'm going back," and started for the 
station. He grew calmer and began to argue, and said 
that he would walk with the American gentleman 
through the ruins and show him every thing for five 
francs. It was noontide and the heat was going up 
from the earth in tremulous waves, and he fanned 
himself furiously, thinking that the banter would not 
be accepted, but we said, "Come on." Crestfallen and 
utterly routed he started, leaving the horses and sad- 
dles with their masters, who looked as if they were 
making the air blue. The old guide got over the sulks 
somewhat as he described, in a mixture of Turkish and 
English, the discoveries by Mr. Wood, of which only 
an occasional word could be understood. But, having 
studied the rums before, we were able to understand the 
position. There was a marked difference in the length 
of the legs of the explorers. We moved on in a health- 
ful stretch, he walked a little, and to keep up was then 
obliged to strike a trot which made him pant. As he 
had posed in the beginning on his knowledge, we said, 
" You know very much, you are a great man, how is it 
you cannot keep up, you have to run?" 

He said he could not see how one could go so fast in 
the heat. We said, " Hurry up and we will explain so 
you will never forget. You see my legs are like the 
hind wheels of a wagon, and yours are like the little 
ones before, yours have to go round nearly three times 
to my once, don't you see, Plato?" 

"Yes, but it's so warm." 

"But I can show you that this is best for you. 
In the winter the pores of your skin are stopped up 
with dirt, but the heat in summer blo^ s the stoppers 
out, and the waste of your system goes out, do you see, 
Plato?" 



410 

"Yes," gruffly and pulled off his sheep skin coat. 

" That's right, you will feel the better for that, had 
you not better take your jacket off too, for we are only 
getting in motion. Now explain all about the school 
of the philosophers." 

As we moved on in double quick he sat down and 
said, "You kill me! If you go so fast I can't think, 
can't tell you nothing, I am hot, my head must be 
cool or you will learn nothing, and you will lose your 
five francs." 

After we had taught him that he was not half so 
cunning as he thought, we made a compromise which, 
but for the great moral lesson intended, we would 
gladly have made half an hour before, and passed on 
then leisurely. 

Following the line of ruins from the south around 
by the west, where they are more exposed, the wonders 
of buried and broken art began to appear in fragments 
of marvellous workmanship, foundations of prodigious 
proportions, patches where the walls are yet perfect, 
and steps up the sides of Mount Prion. We passed 
the ruins of the Greek schools over arches perfect 
and of almost matchless workmanship. As we stepped 
from one wonder to another we were borne back into the 
glories of centuries past, Northward the brick backing 
again appeared, so characteristic of the time of the Ko- 
man ascendency. The Theatre, one of the most won- 
derful, was cut out of the rock of Mount Prion, 
and would hold ten thousand people, and the 
whole mountain side was full of this dismantled 
greatness. We passed over the sites of mysteries of 
Ceres and the Eleusinian, and the School of Magic. 
In the Temple of Hecate the Emperor Julian started 
on his apostacy, which had such a tragic ending. He 



411 

became, like many others who have fallen since, pro- 
bably a Spiritualist, then known as Magic. He fell low 
indeed, and woke to a consciousness of it in dying, as 
he flung the bloody dust in the air and cried, "O 
Nazarene, thou hast conquered!" 

The ruins on the north are most imposing, though 
not in the highest style of art, because perhaps less 
protected and in some respects in better preservation. 
The whole plain has been covered, but the debris has 
settled, and it would require the removal of pro- 
bably fifty feet of fragments and earth to disclose all. 
The city of Ephesus once reached to the sea, but the 
sea has receded until it must be three miles away, just 
as some time in the past it left this whole valley. 

On the east side the ruins continue, not so visibly 
grand as on the south, west and north sides, but here 
there is a stretch of ancient wall several hundred feet 
long and about twenty-five feet high. This is sup- 
ported by arches crossing at right angles, under which 
may have been a street or a market. It is now a place 
of shelter for the caravan, an extemporized kahn, in 
which the camel traders take refuge in their journeys. 
The ruins are all that is visible of the great city 
of the Ephesians, one of the wonders of the world, 
the cradle of Helenistic mythology, next to Athens in 
art, and next to Jerusalem in holy associations, al- 
most the birthplace of Christianity, at least its strong- 
hold for ages, the scene of the most wonderful apostoli- 
cal labors. The remnants of its architectural splendor 
may be found in Constantinople in the church of 
St. Sophia, in Pisa,, and also wherever the Turk 
could scatter them ; in his stone fences will be seen 
pieces of beautiful columns, capitals that would have 
delighted Praxiteles. The Turk creates nothing, 



.412 

and spoils every thing. On the way is a Turkish 
tomb, plastered and whitewashed as usual, in the 
likeness of an old Pennsylvania Dutch bake oven, 
the door of which is made of a piece of marble, 
picked out of the rubbish, covered with exquisite 
designs in the highest conception of art. The 
Turk has taken these beautiful columns and built on 
top of them, of unburnt brick and plaster, a harem, a 
tomb, or any thing else that suited his atrocious in- 
stincts. The other five Apocalyptic cities are utter 
desolations, hardly enough of ruins left to identify 
them if man had left them alone. But there is a resur- 
rection for all dead things, and it has come here. 
Nations have been exploring and rifling until only 
insignificant remains can be seen. Other lands have 
been adorned by the beautiful things exhumed here. 



MABSINE. 



N one of those mornings of mingled mist and sun- 
shine, while the clouds still hung over the hills, our 
ship anchored off this beautiful little city. It is strung 
along the shore and presents a peaceful appearance, 
all the apparent activity being in the movements of 
the boatmen, with their many colored costumes, fezes 
and turbans. Here we went ashore in quest of our 
countrymen, the missionaries. They are always hos- 
pitable and glad to see those from the far-away father- 
land. A guide conducted us to the house of the only 
American who represented our country, and we 
mounted one stairway after another, pounding at the 
doors as we passed, not knowing whether we were 
going into a home or a harem, until a room was 



413 

reached on the walls of which hung certain identifying 
pictures, familiar to walls at home. The first was " The 
Spirit of '76," the drumming up of recruits by the old 
heroes. There was also the spirit of '64 in the battle 
of Gettysburgh, and other more peaceful pictures, 
which assured us by their severe welcome that this was 
a home in which both religion and patriotism dwelt, 
and were sustained at the same altar. 

Pushing on a little further we received the hearty 
greeting of Rev. David Metheny, M.D. We had never 
looked into each other's faces, but were friends at once. 
He was at his breakfast, and with his genuine mission- 
ary hospitality had at his table a family of Italians, 
feeding them for Christ's sake. They had been con- 
verted from Roman Catholicism in one of the Missions, 
and were on their way to Egypt to find employment 
because of the famine now prevailing in this part of 
the country, caused by the utter failure of the winter 
and spring rains. His family were at their home, 
eighteen miles up in the mountains, but owing to the 
clearness of the air it was in sight and did not seem 
more than five miles away. At this mountain home 
the school is kept in the warm weather and down in 
the city at the ocean's side in the winter. These two 
properties belong to the Doctor personally. We infer 
that he is blessed with means, and with the more 
blessed spirit leading him to use them in the Master's 
service. The work done by him in Latakia during the 
last twenty-three years, and the work recently begun he: e, 
show both the liberality of the plucky little church he 
represents, the Reformed Presbvterian, and his own be- 
nevolence in its behalf. It makes a showing of which 
any Presbyterian church might take comfort, and espe- 
cially when it is considered that this denomination has 



414 

only about eleven thousand members in tbe United States. 
But they are of the right stuff. Possibly this may be 
the reason why they are not bulky. 

This mission has a good neighbor, the American 
Board, and good fellowship and helpfulness comes 
out of their mutual friendships. As an evidence of 
this Dr. Metheny pointed to a place in the first story 
of his house and incidentally remarked, " This is where 
brother Montgomery, the famous missionary of the 
American Board at Adena, keeps bis horse. I keep 
mine out of doors." It will be understood that in the 
construction of Oriental houses the ground story is 
devoted to such uses. The American Board works 
mainly with the Turks, the Reformed Presbyierians 
with the Arabs. In Marsine, under care of Dr. 
Metheny, are schools for both boys and girls — forty- 
two pupils in the boarding school and about thirty-five 
girls in the day schools. In Tarsus there is a boarding 
school of thirty-two boys and ten girls. In another 
village school near Marsine there are thirty boys and 
twenty girls. In Tarsus is a day school of thirty boys 
and ten girls. In another there are five boys and 
thirty girls, and still another near Tarsus has fifteen 
boys. There are religious services in all these, preach- 
ing wherever a place can be found to stand upon and 
people to hear. The Reformed Presbyterians are slow 
in receiving people into their communion even at home, 
but more careful here. But they have over two hun- 
dred communicants worthy of the name. In Latakia 
the Turkish government closed several of their schools. 
Nobody thinks of asking any reason for this. The 
Turkish government does any thing it pleases, and no 
reason that ever governed any other people would ex- 
plain their action. Nothing but what is known in our 



415 

country as "pure cussedness" will approximate to a 
conclusion. Still there are several schools in good con- 
dition doing good work under the care of Rev. H. 
Eaeson in Latakia. 

Dr. Metheny's work is specially among a hereditary 
sect, which do not propagate their religion by prose- 
lyting. They number about three hundred thousand, 
and are different in language and customs from any 
others. They are a solitary people in their badness. 
It is a secret religion, with degrees and secret means 
of recognition ; attached to the violation of any of the 
obligations connected with this mystic secret service 
is a penalty executed by a Committee of Twelve who 
adjudge the case, and who become responsible for the 
execution of terrible penalties whenever they deem it 
expedient. One of this sect, on professing Christianity, 
divulged the secrets of the order, and was overtaken 
years after and slain and his tongue cut out, which is still 
preserved in a bottle in Tarsus. The facts concerning 
the case have been published in Beyrut. 

It is hard to take in the terrible changes which have 
comehere. Tarsus/ f no mean city" as the apostle says, with 
its Grecian and Eoman culture, its poets and orators the 
most famous, her Asiatic son Saul, such a city in ruins, 
nothing to mark her once splendid history, a miserable 
and almost forsaken village marking the ancient site, 
with nothing to show but dirt, dreariness and squalor, 
inhabited by a people determined to know no better, 
is one of the paradoxes of God's providence, before 
which we are speechless. The apostle only gives 
a glimpse into this darkness in the first chapter of the 
Romans. But how is the grace of God magnified in 
relieving contrast by the fact that men and women, for 
the unconquerable love they have for Him who re- 



416 

deemed them, will leave home, friends, ambition, family 
ties, literally forsaking father and mother, strangle 
patriotism, give up the luxury which wealth tempts all 
men to long for, for foreign missionaries are not all poor 
and they have had good social relationships, laying all 
down at Christ's feet, and patiently enduring here as 
seeing him who is invisible. Let infidelity bring out 
its heroes or close its lips forever. Let it sneak back 
into the rear, a camp-follower in the army of advancing 
Christianity and civilization. 

The work at Marsine could be greatly extended at 
the present if the Reformed Church would accept the 
generous offer of Mrs. Metheny to give a lot on which 
to erect a school building for the children of the poor, 
not only an orphan asylum, but a home for the penni- 
less. There is a famine in the land just now, and mul- 
titudes of parents would gladly give their children to 
save them from starvation, all the more gladly because 
they know these devoted missionaries. They have the 
utmost confidence in Dr. Metheny as a physician, and 
they know that health would be cared for, and also be- 
cause they know the value of a Christian education 
and moral training, and it is impossible to find parents 
so depraved as not to wish their children to be better 
than themselves. Many would gladly have given their 
children before this but for the fearful oppression of 
opinion and the ostracisms of caste. But now they 
have an excuse which even heathenism cannot resis., 
which Mohammedanism cannot gainsay, " Is it not bet- 
ter that the missionary should have them than that they 
should starve ?" The offer of Mrs. Metheny's generosity 
is a lot which lies between the Doctor's house and the 
sea, in the most favorable condition for health and com- 
fort. It is an opportunity to puch the work of missions 



417 

which will come to a church only once in a lifetime. 
We hope the Reformed Presbyterian Church will not 
miss this most favorable providence of God. 

In this far-off heathen land bloom the rare flowers 
of self-sacrifice. A young Jew was engaged in a cloth- 
ing house and came into friendly relations with Dr. 
Metheny, who in course of conversation remarked in- 
cidentally that he too belonged to the household of the 
faith ; which led the young man to inquire how this 
could be. He took up the Scriptures with him and 
read the promises of the Jew's Messiah, his character, 
his work, his treatment, as described by the prophets ; 
and then compared these with the facts of the New 
Testament. Patiently the young man studied for him- 
self, for he was a first-class Greek and Hebrew scholar, 
until he was able to give sufficient reason for a change 
of heart. His employers became restless and warned 
him about his friendship with Dr. Metheny, saying 
that he would upset his faith, but he said, " He has not 
done it, but the Book,' ' and commenced showing them 
out of their own Scriptures. But this was all the more 
exasperating, and they told him he would have to 
leave. But he said, " Am I not doing your work as 
well as before? am I worth any less to you because I 
believe what the Jewish Scriptures have written?" 
Here was trial at the beginning; to be an outcast from 
all his people and lose three hundred pounds a year 
and his commissions beside. He could have kept his 
place, and his convictions too, if he had not been bap- 
tized. But in the face of all, he confessed before them 
his rejected Lord and was baptized. He was ostracised 
by the Jews and hostilities were awakened by them in 
the minds of the natives. His father, who was rich, 
disowned him, and he was, as his first-born, entitled to 



418 

every thing. As is usual, when a Jew gives up the 
faith of his fathers, funeral services were held, curses 
were pronounced against him and all born of him, and 
he declared a vagabond on the earth. But he endured 
all rather than give up his convictions of the clear 
teachings of the Scriptures. As he was penniless and 
without friends or any possibility of making a living, 
he applied to Dr. Metheny to send him to America 
that he might get away from the curses of his people. 
The Doctor gave him the means of going, saying, " This 
is but loaned to you ; I will not give the slightest occasion 
to the Jews to repeat their usual story that I bought you. 
If you are never able to pay it back, or are sick, it will be 
forgiven ; but if you are prosperous you must return it," 
and the morning of our arrival Dr. Metheny had re- 
ceived a letter telling him that his money was ready 
for him. 

Another case is almost as remarkable. A Greek 
bishop sent his children to the mission school, for which 
his people persecuted him and called him a Protestant ; 
for the hostility of the dead Greek Church to missions 
is greater than that of the Roman Catholic Church in 
Spain. But the bishop kept on ; he would not deprive 
his children of the knowledge of the truth which had 
perished in his own Church ages before ; and what was 
the secret of all this ? It will show the indirect influence 
of mission example and teaching. He had been reared 
in his youth under the influence of Protestant missions in 
Syria and had absorbed the quiet influence, which eo 
shaped his life that he was ready to stand the persecu- 
tion of his people for the good of his family. Now, his 
daughter is a teacher in one of the mission schools and 
is doing good work, though reviled by her own people. 
She has not left the Greek Church, but is living a 



419 

Christian in it and doing Christian work out of it, and 
soon her life will tell on the young among her com- 
panions ; for the good will always conquer and opposi- 
tion will develop her superiority, and her profession 
will win others. Thus the work of reformation will go 
through her father's congregation, and before they 
know it they will be lifted to a higher plain of life and 
duty. 

A little change in our consular arrangements would 
help these self-sacrificing countrymen, and we are sure 
if the President or Secretary Bayard understood the 
petty torments which the Turkish government inflicts 
upon them without mitigation from our consular ser- 
vice, they would change it. The fact is but too ap- 
parent tha't these consuls of ours often have no sympa- 
thy and no sense of justice to their countrymen in 
this struggle. Often, being worldly men, they do 
not believe in Foreign Missions, and say, "What 
is the use of bothering about such an abominable 
people as these Turks, they are not worth saving." 
One of our consuls said to me, in 1879, about the 
Syrians, " If I had my way I would send them all to 
the devil." Others say, " Their religion is good enough 
for them ; let them alone, you only make them good-for- 
nothing in giving them any other." If this had been 
the logic of the church the world would all be in hea- 
thenism, it would have left our own shores in barbar- 
ism. Heathen Turks, Armenians, Arabs and Egyptians 
are not a particle worse than heathen Indians, whom 
we see Christianized every day. 

Of course, we are speaking only of a troublesome 
minority of our consular service, but it needs correcting. 
In Marsine the man who acts as consul is an Englishman 
who has no sympathy with any thing American ; he is a 



420 

hindrance, and our people could get on better with the 
Turkish officials without him. In no case ought a 
foreigner to be appointed unless an American cannot be 
found. The missionaries, if they will accept such a 
position, are the best fitted for it, for they have the con- 
fidence of the people and represent the country to them 
as no foreigners can do ; they are loyal and loving to 
their country, some of them have served in its battles 
and hospitals. It would help their influence if they 
were made either consuls or vice-consuls instead of 
consular agents, In this country a government title 
means every thing ; and this need not increase their 
compensation, where they get any, and where they do 
it without compensation it gives them ability to do 
their work better. For instance, the consul at Beirut, 
of whom we hear only in terms of universal satisfaction, 
would be helped greatly in his usefulness if he were 
made consul-general. Wherever we have a first-rate 
man, he ought to have all that dignity which the 
government can give, especially as he does not get much 
else. 

There was a verse familiar to our childhood which 
we found verified in every part of the globe: 
"If yoo. roam the world below 

Yon will find New Eoglaiid men, 
And if yon roam the world above 

You will find tbem there again." 

New England men are planted all over Asia Minor, not 
only as missionaries, but as adventurers in trade. Agri- 
cultural implements of every kind are everywhere offered 
for sale, reapers, mowers, separators, patent medicines. 
In sight of where we anchored, right in Alexandretta, 
is an American engine puffing its best, snorting until 
the mountains echo in genuine American fashion, press- 



421 

ing and preparing for the Philadelphia market the 
licorice root with which the tobacco which our country- 
men masticate is mixed, and with which they make 
self-ejecting squirt guns of their mouths. There are 
also railroads, either owned or managed by Americans. 
Strange as it may appear there is a railway into Tarsus, 
which is far beyond the prophetic dreams of the apostle, 
though he had travelled in thought into the third 
heavens. Nahum was the only railroad prophet, but 
even he did not say exactly when " the chariots should 
rage in the streets or jostle against each other in the 
broadways, or shall seem like torches and run like the 
lightnings." 

From Marsine to Tarsus, about eighteen miles, is a 
railway which was intended to be carried on to a junc- 
tion with a road through the valley of the Euphrates 
toward China. Our own countryman, Mr. Elliott 
Shepherd, of New York City, was here, whether or not 
in railroad interests we do not certainly know, but he 
did not leave this part of Asia Minor without memorials 
of his Christian sentiments and beneficence. There is 
a school in the bounds of the territory of the Reformed 
Presbyterian missions, founded for him and sustained 
by him. There is another worker well known in our 
country and deservedly so, for he has founded and is 
carrying on a grand work for the American Board. 
We regret exceedingly that we did not see "Bishop," 
as we shall style him, G. F. Montgomery, whose head- 
quarters are at Adena ; he has one of the largest mis- 
sion churches in Asia Minor, if not the banner church, 
with a building which would appear well in any of our 
home cities, and hundreds of communicants. His people 
are Armenia-Turkish ; he has a denominational school, 
a female seminary and district schools all over the 



422 

country, and we were informed that he had from three 
to five hundred persons at his ordinary prayer-meet- 
ings. His brethren believe in him and love him, both 
for himself and his work ; and from their enthusiastic 
accounts we infer that he is a missionary war-horse 
with the bridle pulled off. 

This little city from which we are parting has some 
history worth a word of recapitulation. In sight of the 
harbor is the spot once covered by a fort aud city 
called Pompeiopolis, built by Pompeii for the purpose of 
cutting off the ancient pirates, who nearly dominated 
this part of the coast. In the mountains in the back- 
ground, whose heads are bathed in the mists which 
creep up from the sea, is a notch or deep depression 
known as the "Cilician Gates," through which the 
great Persian generals led their hosts backwards and 
forwards in their contests either in victory or defeat. 
This morning, deluged in rain, we find ourselves 
anchored in a snug little bay between famous ranges 
which enclose it from storms, just opposite the town 
of Alexandretta. Before, as in a little valley in a 
crescent of the mountain, is the spot where Alexander the 
Great gained over Darius the famous victory of Issus. 
All over these mountains men speared and thrust each 
other until their dead bodies rolled into the sea and 
their blood soaked the soil. No marks are left; the 
green mountains have cleansed themselves long ago of 
the stains of human cruelty and the marks of violence 
through human ambition. It is peaceful now and a 
September sun has conquered the storm, and the light 
dances on the ripples of the blue waters in the bay, 
while the noontide rays have climbed to the mountain- 
tops, where they are glorifying in gold and opal the 
clouds of mists so reluctant to quit the scene. 



423 

The town, which squats on one side of the hay, was, 
as its name indicates, intended to perpetuate the name 
and fame of a man whose soul went out on the breath 
of Bacchus. It is a fit monument of one who died as a 
fool dieth, and this greatness is only the background to 
show his amazing folly. The town is like all Turkish 
remains; the few houses standing look imposing, for 
whitewashing with the Turks is the ultimatum of splen- 
dor ; but if one ventures upon the shore he will return 
disgusted. There is an old version of Jonah and the 
whale associated with it which may give a better pic- 
ture than jaded imagination. It is said that after the 
whale had gone all through the Mediterranean with his 
human freight, and was not able to relieve himself, he 
saw Alexandretta and it made him sick, and Jonah was 
shot out on dry land. 



WHAT IS MISSION ABY WORK? 

WE have given the subject too narrow limits, con- 
fusing the minds of the people and discouraging 
the work by a wrong definition. The popular idea is that 
of converting man from sin and ignorance, and their 
degradations unto God, and starting in their souls by 
the Spirit of God impulses of eternal life. This is the 
ultimate of all mission work, but it branches out into a 
thousand avenues. Whatever even tends in this direc- 
tion is missionary work. Limiting the work only to the 
conversion of souls or the building up of Christian life 
leaves out all the patient service of seed-sowing before 
harvest can be thought of, and even seed-sowing is not 
the first process. There is the preparation for this 
which requires long labor and patient endurance in 



424 

acquiring the language, by which truth is conveyed, 
gaining the confidence of men into which the truth is 
received, impressing them of their need by uprooting 
the hindrances. In other words, " preparing the way of 
the Lord, making his paths straight," then sowing and 
enduring the slow processes of germination and cultivat- 
ing, and then the harvesting, the converting and gather- 
ing together into the church, whatever contributes to 
this end is missionary work and essential. Much scep- 
ticism in the minds of the world, and much depression 
in Christian hopes have resulted from turning the 
work upside down and making it rest on its apex in- 
stead of its base. 

To illustrate, if a man wears a shirt-collar in this 
country until the natives make up their minds that it 
is a good and becoming thing, and imitate it, he is a 
missionary and has done a good work as far as it goes, 
and has contributed to the ultimate of Christian life ; 
for a man may have a new heart put into a dirty body, 
but it will not stay there without making the body 
clean. Men and women came here as missionaries 
from England and America, with the conviction that 
their first and most special duty was to convert these 
heathen to God, but toiled apparently in vain, their 
hopes set to this ideal perished, but all the time they 
wore handsome European shoes, and in a few years 
the natives have European shoes, clean feet and stock- 
ings, and have been convinced without knowing it that 
missionary ways were better than theirs, and began a life 
of assimilation and imitation which leads to the adopt- 
ing of moral ideas as well. Such have done good mis- 
sionary work, for it all tends to the desired end, salva- 
tion and its sanctification. 



425 

A man comes as a missionary having the saving of 
souls as his ultimatum, and while laboring for it ties his 
shoe-strings neatly until every heathen ties his the same 
way, he has done missionary work and will not lose his 
reward. This has been impressed upon us in a new 
light, and with great force, in the contrast between the 
clothing of the people of this country now and seven- 
teen years ago. Our companion at that time, Rev. 
Stewart Mitchell, of Bloomsburgh, Pa., will bear us out 
in our statement that ai^ong the natives we did not see 
a dozen pairs of European shoes from Jerusalem to 
Beirut ; then they had a single sole or a piece of wood 
with a strap through which the foot was thrust, or red 
shoes, turned up at the end like a skate, or were bare- 
foot. Stockings on the feet of native men or women 
were not seen once a week, now the finest shoes pro- 
duced anywhere are worn by a large proportion of the 
people in towns. Women wear beautiful French made 
shoes, and European coats and trousers are seen fre- 
quently. All this has been brought about by the resi- 
dence and example of the missionaries, who came before 
commerce or railways or tourists, who prepared the way 
for them, made the highways safe, so that now knowl- 
edge is running to and fro in the earth. 

What is this but missionary triumph? The fact is so 
apparent that one need not look for its confirmation, for 
it will thrust itself upon him, that the natives are fol- 
lowing the styles of the missionaries and adopting theii 
ideas, and have already admitted their superiority in 
modes of life and becoming conduct. Even the 
Turks are getting ashamed of their marriage relations, 
because they recognize the inferiority of their wives 
and daughters to Europeans with whom they are 
brought in contact. A Turk sat at the table on the 



426 

steamer with European and American gentlemen and 
ladies. We saw him observing them as they were eating, 
and when they would eat certain kind of food with a 
fork which he was about to eat with his knife he 
dropped it and took his fork also, So he learned more 
in those eight days as to the proprieties of lite than he 
had learned ia all his life before. He had his wife and 
daughter on board, veiled of course, and stowed away 
out of sight, neither of whom could have eaten except 
with their hands. When they came to the time of dis- 
embarking he stood at the other end of the steamer 
and they climbed down the ship and into the boat as 
best they could, and when he thought that the eyes of 
those who had sat at the table were turned from him 
he sneaked down and got in the boat with them. This 
thing will not last in this state of the case, he will not 
stand the shame much longer, and will break caste and 
bring his wife and daughter to the table with him. 

The direct results of mission work have been marvel- 
lous, but the indirect and incidental have been a thou- 
sand fold greater and will bring proofs soon which will 
confound unbelief. All causes contributing, however 
indirectly, must be estimated in results, and missionary 
work is no exception. The man who from a Christian 
country brings a rake or reaper, and demonstrates the 
superiority of that country where the Christian religion 
controls, is a missionary and has done a good mission- 
ary work, which will appear in the evangelizing results ; 
so that they who pity and they that sow and they that 
reap shall in due time rejoice together. 

A missionary's wife, who has done much among the 
women, was for a time prevented from taking part in 
direct evangelizing work because she had a family of 
little children and was confined to her house. But she 



427 

washed her little baby every day, and the natives, who 
bind theirs up in rags and never wash them, indeed 
never wash themselves, watched her, surprised and 
outraged at first, sure it would kill the baby. But it 
did not, and so they wash their babies because the 
missionary's wife, the model lady, washes hers, and 
they follow the fashions. This Christian mother was 
doing her common-place duty to her family, she could 
do no more, and yet she has created a revolution which 
has, and will do as much lasting good as any thing her 
husband has done in the same length of time, for clean- 
liness is next to godliness. A Mohammedan never 
mentions a woman unless it is absolutely necessary, 
and then prefaces the allusion by the expression, 
"Ajellack Allak" — " May God elevate you above the 
contamination of so vile a subject." One married a 
woman who had been educated in our school at Beirut. 
He never could find language in which to express his 
gratitude, for said he, "She don't curse or swear or 
raise the devil generally ; she don' t scold and storm 
and beat the children, and I have not had to beat her 
once." This is genuine missionary work, and will 
reach the Mohammedans when they are accessible by 
the removal of the Turkish government from the earth. 
The fact is clear as day that the gospel of the mission- 
ary is a gospel of contrasts which ever challenges to 
"look on this and then on that." Heathen countries 
must be won to Christ by contrasts. 

Another example of true missionary work and how 
it is made effective is in an incident related about the 
Rev. Samuel Jessup while he was a missionary in 
Tripoli. He lived near a Turk, who came to him and 
said, " You have a good wife, a very good wife. I have 
lived next to you for years, and I have never heard 



428 

her scold or raise a ripple, or beat her husband or the 
children, nor has she quarrelled with any of the neigh- 
bors." Mrs. Jessup, though one of the most competent 
and hopeful of the missionaries' wives, never did better 
missionarv work than when she convinced this old Turk 
that Christian women are peaceful and can master 
their own spirit, greater in the eyes of the most famous 
Oriental than he that ruleth a city. 

This is the country where women and the ass 
are on a par in native estimation, and whatever 
lifts woman is gospel triumph, for the people can 
never be converted to Christianity until their abomi- 
nable ideas of woman's inferiority are annihilated. 
When female children are born the whole family 
go into a panic of disgust. "When a male child 
is born a sweetmeat or pastry is prepared, made of rice 
and flour, sweetened and spiced, and is sent to all 
friends of the family, who are expected to congratu- 
late the happy parents. It was thought to be a desir- 
able thing and in the line of the gospel ideas of the 
equality of men and women to break down this abom- 
inable cruelty. So Mr. Tanni, of Tripoli, was one 
of the first to attempt the breaking down of this dis- 
honoring prejudice of lamentation over the birth of a 
daughter. A daughter was born in his household, 
and as he was the American Consul, he ran up 
the American flag over the consulate. Messengers 
were at once sent to inquire the reason, whether it 
were on the occasion of the anniversary of some great 
battle or deliverance, or whether he had received news 
of some important national event, or if it were a fete 
or fast day in his country. Mr. Tanni replied that it 
was neither a memorial day nor a fete or fast day, 
neither had the government gained any victory. But 



429 

he had had a daughter born in his house. They re- 
tired disgusted, wondering whether the Consul was a 
' fool or a fraud. But the custom was continued among 
the missionaries of sending out the congratulatory sweet- 
meat when daughters are born. Dr. Henry Jessup, of 
Beirut, and others have done it, until now many of the 
natives are doing the same thing, and without being con- 
scious of it a custom hoary with age and dishonor to 
woman is being exterpated, and woman is in her birth 
being raised to the place the gospel gives her. Is not 
this missionary work and triumph? From the miscon- 
ception among English-speaking people as to what mis- 
sionary work is and this narrowness of the popular no- 
tion, hostility is roused to the cause, for it is impossible 
to express it in conversion of souls at any particular 
date. As well attempt to express the light of the sun 
by a sun-glass. Was not Livingstone doing missionary 
work in exploring Africa? Was it not the missionary 
life he lived which caused the native woman to 
revere him for his purity towards women? — one of 
the grandest testimonies ever offered to his character 
and Christian service. Heathen as she was, she could 
distinguish between the morally clean and unclean. 
Missionary work must be estimated in and by its 
revelations, it must be represented as standing on its 
broad, immovable base and not oscillating on its head, 
by intelligently answering the question, what is mis- 
sionary work? 



430 



TRIPOLI AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 

MEASURED by its surroundings Tripoli is a town, 
but estimated by population it is a city, being 
the centre of a province of more than 214,000 souls 
and with its seaport itself numbering about 25,000 in- 
habitants. This is another of the strange things that 
appear to the pilgrim in Asia Minor, the unaccount- 
ably large population for the size of the town When 
told the number in Marsine by Dr, Metheny our sur- 
prise was so apparent that he explained. Said he, " Do 
you see my yard ?" "Yes," we replied. "How many 
men and women would it hold if they were lying down 
side-by-side?" "Two or three thousand." "Well, it 
was full last night, you can count their bodies by their 
marks in the dust ; multitudes have no other home, I 
let them sleep there, they never disturb any thing and 
are gone by sunrise!" 

Tripoli is quite imposing from the sea, but within is dis- 
appointing. There were three ports of entry in the ancient 
city, which was of considerable importance in the past. 
The ruins of a wall eighteen feet thick are still to be seen, 
and west of this wall the whole promontory is strewn 
with ruins. The modern town still stands about two 
miles from the sea imbosomed in orchards of orange, 
lemon, apricot and apple trees. El Kadisha, the 
Sacred Rivtr, which starts from near the remaining 
grove of ancient cedars on the Lebanon, runs through 
the town, irrigating and making the whole plain very 
fertile. Tripoli is the northern boundary of the mis- 



431 

sion field in Syria of the Presbyterian Church, the mis- 
sion extending from Acre to Hymath and from the sea 
to the Lebanon mountains, about forty miles on the 
south and eighty on the north. This mission was among 
the first started by Messrs. Foote and Wilson and then 
Dr. Henry Jessup and his companion Lyons, who 
wrought together until Dr. Jessup was transferred 
to the Beirut Mission. Mr. Lyons, though in ill-health, 
determined to stay the full ten years which the Board 
requires, but his health wss so impaired that his phy- 
sician sent him home in the ninth year of his work 
so utterly broken down that he was bed-ridden five 
years. An anecdote is told of his shrewdness in man- 
aging the people in whose midst he had lived and whose 
prejudices he had to encounter. On one of Ms tours 
he encamped in a town of the Maronites, Roman 
Catholics malignant and persecuting, who commenced a 
series of rude and provoking acts. He knew it was to 
get an opportunity to kill him, so he used his superior 
knowledge of their superstitions; he took from his 
pocket a piece of paper and with pencil began to draw, 
looking in the face of one of his assailants and then 
transferring the features in great eyes and nose, occa- 
sionally he would say, " Stand still till I get your nose." 
This frightened them so that they ran almost breathless 
to the nearest village and sent him word that if he 
would stop taking their picture3 they would do any 
thing he wanted. The power in the device was in the 
stories their priests had told them about the Protestants. 
They tell their people that Protestants are devils and will 
take their pictures, and when they have finished them 
they cut off the paper heads and then the head of the one 
represented will drop off. After the departure of 
Bev. Mr. Lyons and Kev. Henry Jessup, Rev. Samuel 



432 

Jessup came, and he and Dr. Wilson and others carried 
on the work with great success, until Rev. Samuel Jessup, 
a few years ago, was made manager of the publishing de- 
partment of the Board, where he is doing a work useful 
and blessed, 

Tripoli has now three missionaries, Revs. C. J. Hard- 
ing, To W. March, son of the honored Dr. March, so 
long pastor of the Clinton Street Presbyterian Church, 
Philadelphia, and medical missionary Dr. Ira Harris, of 
Albany, New York. There is a boy's day-school and 
one for girls at the Port. There is an organized church 
with about twenty members, but whose congregations 
are much larger, for in our mission preaching stations 
people attend from the native Greek churches who 
never hear any thing worth listening to in their own. 
Mohammedans ^ill hear preaching who could not be 
moved out of their nominal faith, and there is also 
always an element of transient people brought by busi- 
ness, commerce, or travel, who come and go as their 
affairs determine. There is a flourishing female semi- 
nary under the care of Miss Legrange, a grand teacher 
and worker and a model woman, whose presence among 
this people is elevating, a misssionary if she does not 
speak a word. Miss Holmes is also very efficient in 
her own personality and its capacities. Miss Ford is 
now on her way to this field. 

The territory of which Tripoli is the centre contains 
one-half of the Presbyterian missions in Syria, and in- 
cludes the following considerable cities, Nunis and 
Namath, in all of which are church organizations, 
schools for boys and girls, beside twenty-five out-stations, 
in nearly all of which are schools, and in Nunis is a 
native pastor. Here was the battle field of Zenobia, 
who was the daughter of a Syrian chieftain, and mar- 



433 

ried the second time Odenathus, Prince of Palmyra, 
whe, after his brilliant campaigns against the Persians, 

was declared Augustus and co-regent of the Empire by 
Gallienus. Odenathus was murdered and Zenobia 
ascended the throne, assumed the title of the Queen of 
the East, declared herself independent of Rome and 
extended her authority over all Syria as well as parts 
of Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and Egypt, governing all 
with singular ability and energy. But when Aurelian 
marched against her she commanded her armies per- 
sonally, and was defeated at Antioch and Amesa, and 
shut up in Palmyra. She attempted to escape, but 
was captured and compelled to walk with her hands 
chained before the Emperor's Triumphal chariot into 
Rome in 274. The beautiful story of Zenobia, by 
Ware, so popular with the English-speaking world, has 
been translated into Arabic as a serial in a monthly 
journal. 

The Orontes flows here, rising in the Antilibanus, 
and is historic all its length. In its valleys lived the 
Hittites, the descendants of Heth, with whom Abra- 
ham had dealings about a graveyard, who exhibited 
that apparent Oriental hospitality which professed en- 
tire negation of rights to Abraham to take and do as he 
pleased with the cave. But Abraham was too well- 
posted in real estate matters and titles to entrust his 
dead on any such guarantee, co after a spell of Oriental 
dickering he paid up and had right, title and interest 
to said possession. 

The Hittites were roving speculators, and are fre- 
quently mentioned on Egyptian monuments, as well as 
in the Bible, and are believed to be mentioned in the 
cuneifoim inscriptions after the conquest of Palestine. 
It is certain that they established a kingdom in the 



434 

Valley of the Orontes. The Hittite stones were dis- 
covered near the Hammuth, one of our missionary sta- 
tions. A couple of casts of the principal stones were taken 
after difficulty. The original lies in the Sultan's grave- 
yard in Stamboul in the seraglio, called by compliment 
a museum. This stone had been discovered in 1812 
by Burckhardt, but in 1870 Mr. Johnson, American 
Consul, and the Rev. Samuel Jessup, now of the Pres- 
byterian Syrian Mission, found it in Hammuth, where 
he was then laboring. Messrs. Jessup and Johnson 
discovered not only Burckhardt's stone, but four others 
closely resembling it. 

Captain Condor in a letter to the London Times, and 
now published in a book, gives as the result of deci- 
pherings the following : — " The net result of the dis- 
covery is that the hieroglyphs were carved by the early 
ancestors of those very races which still dwell in North- 
ern Syria and Asia Minor, as represented by the Turk- 
omans and Turks, mingling as the Hittites did with the 
Semitic races of Palestine and Arabia. In fact, my 
belief is that the Hittites are still represented in Syria 
and in Palestine by the Turkomans, who are to be 
found even on the plains of Esdraelon and of Sharon. 
A belief which I ventured to express three years ago 
in ' Heth and Moab,' now appears to be founded on 
fact, though these actual tribes are later immigrants 
from the East." 

The same author contends that the stones discovered 
at Hammuth and Charchemish are at least as old as 
Moses, and perhaps as old as Abraham, and there are 
good reasons to suppose that they are the oldest monu- 
ments yet found in Asia. There is a very interesting 
book published on the general subject by Dr. Wright, 
who first suggested the Hittite theory as the solution 
of the inscriptions. 



435 

There is another exceedingly interesting work of a 
people bordering on the Board's territory, among whom 
the Reformed Church is working, already described 
in connection with Marsine and Latakia. It is the 
remnant of the people cast out by Joshua for their 
abominations, of whom there is nearly a quarter of a 
million. It is a great oath-bound, secret organization. 
Dr. Harris went up among them, treating the diseases 
of their sick, curing those suffering from disorders with- 
in the possibilities of the surgeon's skill, but with his 
medicines for their bodies he carried the remedies for 
their sick and dying souls, Bibles, Testaments and por- 
tions of the Word. In one of their towns the Governor 
sent word to him that he must report at headquarters 
as to what he was doing and why he was selling Bibles, 
&c. The messengers came into his presence and he 
refused to go, saying that he had seen the Governor 
and had a permit from the Sultan. Then they said he 
must wait until they could report, which he did, and 
the Governor sent a man to examine the books, who 
took up a copy of the Bible and began to read, became 
deeply interested and finally asked the price of the 
book. Dr. Harris said, " I will give you a copy." He 
said he would prefer to purchase it, paying ten piasters, 
forty cents for it, and commenced reading it to groups 
of men, who would listen by the hour. Others came 
and purchased the whole or parts of the Scripture, and 
in a short time he had none left, and the demand was 
increasing. An old man, who had diligently read the 
Koran all his life, declared that he got more comfort to 
his soul in one hour's reading of the Bible than in the 
whole of his life before. 

This entire territory, with its hundreds of thousands, 
is opening up to the gospel. The Reformed Presbyterian 



436 

Church, has schools and could do a work almost boundless 
in future results for good ii they had the men and 
means. This mission, whose centre is at Latakia, which 
has already done so much with its limited means, owes 
its prosperity to the efforts and liberality of Dr. Me- 
theny, whose name has already been mentioned in con- 
nection with the work at Marsine. He has the reputa- 
tion of being a great surgeon ; he charges the poor peo- 
ple nothing for medical service, but the rich are obliged 
to pay full price, and the report ia abroad that he made 
enough from his profession to build most of the commo- 
dious buildings at Latakia. But the good he has done 
as a minister of Jesus Christ comes out in surprising 
ways. A poor woman came to him from the vast 
heathen population already described, the Musairljeh, 
outcasts of the Canaanites. She had a terrible tumor, 
such as makes the heart of the most daring surgeon 
sick, and begged him to remove it, but he said to her, 
" I could do thi3 easily enough, but every thing is 
against you. There is hardly a hope that you can re- 
cover if I take it away, and you will soon die if I do 
not. Then your people are heathen and are afraid of 
death, and if you should die in the operation they 
would never forgive me.' ' 

" Take it away," she said, "I am a Christian, I am 
not afraid to die." 

"What," said he, "you a Christian, who are a 
woman not considered worth saving ?' ' 

" Yes," said she, "I am a Christian, and there are 
many more women among our people who are Chris- 
tians and not afraid to die." 

"And how is this?" he asked. 
■ " Well," she answered, " you remember one of our 
orphan girls in your school some years ago ?' ' 



437 

"Ye?," he replied. " I did not know what had be- 
come of her." 

Said she, "When she came home she gathered some of 
us women together and took us away into the woods and 
said she had something to tell us, ' There is religion for 
women, I have found it out in Latakia, in the school. 
Jesus Christ, God's Son, died for women, and he blessed 
women while he lived, and when he died he spoke to 
them in love,' and then she told us how to have his 
love and help, and there in the secret place in the 
depths of the forest she taught us to pray and read to 
us out of His Word, and many of us believed it, and 
we are Christians and are not afraid to die,. I am a 
Christian and you can take the tumor away if God will 
hear my prayer, and if I get well I will bless his name, 
and if I die it is all right." So she laid herself down 
for the knife and endured in Christlike meekness until 
it was removed, and when it was over thanked him, 
and all the time she lay upon her bed, which became 
her death-bed, she praised God in pain and pang. She 
did not have strength to recover, and when the end 
came she said again, " It is all right, Doctor. You told 
me my danger and did all you could for me, and I am 
a Christian and am not afraid to die.' ' She sank away 
in peace, in the sweetest repose, in the acceptance of 
that Saviour of whom she had heard in the woods from 
the young girl. 

Among this heathen people, from whom the martyr 
woman came, the Reformed Presbyterians had twenty- 
five schools and a large number of scholars. But the 
Turkish government has shut most of them up. This 
will be confusing without a word of explanation. The 
Turkish government only draws its soldiers from the 
Mohammedan populations. They will allow no Chris- 



433 

tain in the army. The Christians are taxed for its 
support, but the fighting is done by the "faithful." 
These desceadents of the Canaanites are nominal Mos- 
lems, and are therefore a continued source of bullet 
targets, and whoever among them becomes a Chris- 
tain is at once beyond army regulations, and if any 
part of the Mohammedan population embraces Chris- 
tianity it is just as if so many had deserted from 
the army. This will explain the hostility of the gov- 
ernment to all Protestant progress, it is largely politi- 
cal. The relation of mission centres to the field is a 
subject which, so far as we know, has not been fully 
explained. Sometimes the centre is the weakest point 
in the whole field. But centres are chosen with refer- 
ence to the health of missionaries, teachers, or schools, 
or convenience in reaching the several points included. 
The centre of a wheel is its smallest point. The hub, 
except the hole, is at the smallest fraction of the circle, 
and this is the case in the field of which Tripoli is the 
small hub and axle, of very great spoke and felloe 
influences. 

From the discoveries being made, stirring up the 
scientific mind and prophetic inquiry, Syria is becom- 
ing the sweet Canaan of all literary, scientific and re- 
ligious cranks. They are tending hitherward in their 
various vagaries as the needle to the pole. They are 
going up and down the earth in quest of novelties, the 
genuine descendents of the " Gadites," self-called apos- 
tles of scientific adventures, archaeologists and relic-hun- 
ters and frauds of the most imposing kind. The latter 
work upon the credulous, but well-meaning, of wealth 
in England and the United States. The fag ends of 
Adventists, who cannot recall the doctrine in modera- 
tion, but make it ridiculous by their pranks. Some 



439 

are here to watch and wait for the second advent of 
our Lord, esteeming themselves so well prepared for 
the event that they will start on for the first welcome. 
Others are here to hurry up the fulfilment of prophecy. 
One man passed through the land trying to fulfil the 
words of the Master, who said, "And the gospel must 
be published to all nations." He learned a few sen- 
tences in Arabic, as a parrot, and then went from town 
to town getting off his message, which could not be un- 
derstood , in order to fulfil the words of the Master to 
bring the woes and blessings of the Lord's coming. 
Another went about preaching that death was done 
for and that there would be no more death and sorrows 
and tears and graves ; he had disposed of all these, and 
because he lived they should all live. But one said, 
" Suppose you die, then what will happen?" Said he, 
" The whole thing will be bust up." 

Another, a man of great wealth in England, offered 
to give twenty thousand pounds if one of our mission- 
aries would procure him twenty missionaries full of the 
Holy Ghost to preach to the Bedouins. The same man 
sent an offer of a like sum to purchase the land about 
the waters of Meron and settle the Bedouins on it. 
Nobody would undertake the job because the land be- 
longs to the Turkish Government and could not be 
bought for any such purpose, and if it could it would 
take it back the next day and keep the money and land 
too, so the title could not be obtained. To catch the 
Bedouin would be like coralling and lassoing so many 
wild ostriches. 

There is on one of the heights of the Lebanon 
an old couple, English people, he a clergyman and 
his wife a constitutional crank. She was possessed 
with the idea that the English are of the lost tribes of 



440 

Israel, and also mixed in with this Second Adventism 
in crazy proportions. She has been stirred up by tbe 
discovery of the Hittite stone, the results of which 
she combines with the rest of her vagaries. Though 
people of wealth and some social standing she left 
England, bringing her husband with her and all 
her effects, to live in Palestine, to be ready for any 
thing that might turn up in a prophetic way. She had 
a great gypsy wagon with room for living in it, &o,, a 
machine so large that the ship had to rig extra tack- 
ling to get it off, and required all the draft horses attain- 
able in Beirut to pull it up the mountain. In this she 
expected, with her husband, to ride about, over the 
mountains and through the valleys and waddies, until 
they would meet the Lord in the clouds, and then 
she would either leave the travelling house cr she 
would be taken up in it. 

The natives when it was landed walked arcuEcl 
it dazed with speechless wonder, afraid to touch 
it, not comprehending whether it was a part of a 
menagerie or Mohammed's coffin. It now stands on 
the mountain where the sixteen horses left it, and 
nobody can even guess its purpose. Some of the natives 
seem to think that it is a chariot waiting to he caught 
up on clouds of flame when the time comes for the de- 
parture. She has built a house with walls of great 
thickness on one of three hills, beside which she believes 
she has discovered stones with Hittite inscriptions, 
though what relation this has to her celestial aspira- 
tion reason would not be so unreasonable as even to 
conjecture. 



441 



A CHAT WITH THE BUILDERS OF THE THIRD 
CENTURY. 

SPIRITUAL communication would be convenient 
acd agreeable if we could call up the spirit of 
Antoninus Pius and interview him about his purpoee 
and ambitions in building the magnificent fabric whose 
ruins seem near enough, as we write, to lay our hands 
upon them. It is a strange atmospheric phenomenon 
of this country that every great thing seems disposed to 
keep within sight. The Mediterranean seems to creep 
up to the very tops of the Lebanons, so that it appears 
within a stone's throw, though thirty miles away. The 
mountains are always crowding on one's pathway and 
receding graduallv, and what seemed to be across the 
way are distant a half day's journey. This remnant 
of Baalbec stands out from every object around, soli- 
tary but ever present. There was a fancy in the minds 
of the old builders to put their great wonders at the 
terminus of great valleys with mountain background. 
The architectural wonders of the world are so situated. 
Athens is in an amphitheatre of mountains, even the 
horizon of the Parthenon is limited by mountain ranges 
on which the mists hang their mystic draperies. It 
was so of Ephesus, and is peculiarly so at Baalbec. It 
is near the water-shed from which flow the tributaries 
from the Lebanon down into the classic Orontes, and into 
the valley on the east side down which runs the waters of 
Litany. The valley is about wide enough to hoM the 
city, with room for an effective perspective. On each 



442 

side are the high mountain ranges of the Lebanon and 
anti- Lebanon, with a valley scooped out for a teeming 
population, and by its wonderful fertility able to sup- 
port them. It receives the constantly decomposing 
lime from the mountains, and this is mingled with a soil 
strongly impregnated with oxide of iron ; for in this 
mountain range is plenty of iron ore, and the practised 
eye from the bituminous coal regions will detect unmis- 
takable marks of coal on the way from Beirut to 
Baalbec. 

Our readers need not go into despair under the im- 
pression that we are going to prepare a guide book, for 
this will suffice as to general appearances ; any thing 
more will have to be seen to be appreciated. But there 
are questions about the building of the temples before 
us that would indicate the utmost of stupidity not to de- 
scribe and discuss, while longing to know the secret pur- 
poses under the first stone laid, kept alive through years 
of inconceivable genius and labors by which they were 
brought to their completion. The more wonderful pur- 
pose too, and its agencies of war and earthquake, by 
which God's supremacy is forever written in their 
crumbling ruins. If Antoninus Pius conceived the pur- 
pose and executed it, then we bow before his genius and 
its semi-omnipotence. If he only selected the men 
who could do it and commanded the resources of 
wealth, vital force and creative genius by which me- 
chanical forces were employed to do what no physical 
force or genius on the earth now can do, then we 
ought to reverence the value of Antoninus, the Pius, as 
no other living man. 

One is prodigiously bothered in measuring the genius 
represented in a modern cemetery, but when he looks 
back seventeen hundred years, along certain lines of 



443 

advancement, he cannot but ask if the race is not either 
declining or is starting up out of the ashes of the greater 
past, and still in its infancy. Standing bj that mon- 
ster stone, seventy-one feet in length, fourteen feet high, 
or thick, and thirteen feet wide, the thought arose of the 
once busy hands that dressed it, and of the mighty mind 
that conceived and executed the plans of the structure 
of which it was to be a part. One is bewildered in see- 
ing it lying away from its fellows, all uncovered to the 
storms and decay of the ages, and no man even able to 
conjecture why, all at once, it was left. What voice 
from heaven said, "Thus far shalt thou go and no 
further ?" What convulsion turned to ruins the pur- 
pose or the foundation on which it was to stand ? It 
is the most confusing and paralyzing problem of 
human history. Or to lower the problem to the con- 
trolling causes of our own times, we might ask if the 
bottom fell out of the royal treasury ? Was there a 
strike or a panic ? and if so, who told the big lie which 
made the stampede ? One thing we do know, that if 
it were a lie that made them scamper it was probably 
a monster, or if it was the truth that made them bag 
their hammers and chisels it was a direct revelation 
from above, for if they were like the present occupants 
of this country they could not have held on to the 
truth long enough to get from the town to the stone- 
quarries. 

But another mystery nearly as great is, how did the 
three stones which are in the wall of the Acropolis 
get into their present position? The quarry from 
whence they were taken is a half mile away and lower 
than the wall on which they lie, and their position is thirty 
feet above the moat, which would not be deeper than 
the foundation because it would have endangered 



444 

it. There are in place in this wall three stones sixty- 
four, sixty-three and sixty-two feet long and thirteen 
feet high, or thick, and as wide as thick, which, accord- 
ing to the best estimates, would weigh 12 ; 000 tons. The 
next mystery is, who did all this, and why was it done? 
The conviction of the learned world is that this is the Heli- 
opolis of Grreco -Roman authors. The Greek name only 
suggests that it was devoted to worship of the sun, and 
Baal is nearly identical with the God of this luminary. 
The only definite statement suggestive of any personal- 
ity is from the seventh century, to the effect that An- 
toninus Pius erected a large temple to Jupiter at Heli- 
opoKs in Pbcenecia, which was regarded as one of the 
marvels of the age. From which we gain two reflec- 
tions; one is how it is that false gods have always had 
all the grand establishments of the world except one, and 
that had to be demolished to keep men from going for- 
ever into idolatry. Is great architectural display con- 
sistent with and helpful to the Christian religion, or 
does it not alienate the nations from the pure and sim- 
ple forms of Christian religion? History, which is 
recorded human experience, is unmistakable in its 
declarations that great architectural display and relig- 
ious decay are the same. Architecture and music 
started from the seed of Cain, " that evil one." Abel's 
seed have never, so far as we know, to any great extent 
been famous in this kind of art until they had fallen back 
in religious life in the Christian church, or if they had not 
in the beginning, they reached spiritual decay before they 
were done with it. We simply propound as a conun- 
drum from all this, not in death-like seriousness, but as 
worthy of passing speculation, does Christian life in 
the well defined graces, as given by the Master and 
his apostles, hold its own or make progress in the 



445 

highest expression in church architectural display ? or is 
the grace of God in its average manifestations most 
effective in churches that cost comparatively little? 

The other query is as to the character of Antoninus 
Pius. He must have done something remarkable in 
this line or he would not have had the name, for the 
names men give themselves do not stick, nor do the 
names their admirers give them, except as they are 
the exponents of good qualities. So there must have 
been some superior quality which would continue to 
this time, for a man has obtained a considerable degree 
of worldly immortality who gets and keeps his name in 
Bsedaker's or Murray's Guide Books after nearly six- 
teen hundred years. A man has managed well for the 
main chance who, after being dead so long, compels all 
the Dutch, French, English and Americans to repeat 
his name and read of his fame, or know nothing of Baal- 
bec. But another aspect of the case is bothersome. 
If he must be recognized as " Pius," whose money did 
he use? his own would not be a possible conjecture; if 
he got the designation in using other peoples' money, 
all we can say is he did not die without issue, his gene- 
alogy would read as familiarly as the spelling book. 
It is indeed wonderful how this form of piety survives; 
and more, it will never die out as long as anybody else 
has any money. Then, again, if he built a temple to 
either the sun or Jupiter, we would like to know whether 
it were not with the expectation that the sun would not 
light up the works of Antoninus the Pius for general 
observation. If it was for the glory of Jupiter might 
not Jupiter, in his thoughts, have been the medium 
through which Antoninus the Pius could be seen. It 
may not eseem reverent to question the piety of seven- 
teen hundred years, and all we can say is, if Antoninus 



446 

had died without issue we should have had no occasion 
to seem irreverent. There are a few standing objects 
of this great man which challenge our admiration even 
in their dismemberments from their relations, solitary 
parts which carry the mind to some vague conception 
of the past glories of art gathered in this far off country. 

The entrance to the vast ruin is through a vault, 
one or two parallel subterranean passages, connected 
by a third, and on each side are chambers, probably 
used as stables. Emerging from these, one passes 
around through piles of stones and debris to the por- 
tico of the Acropolis, in front of which are the bases of 
twelve columns which have disappeared. The Arabs 
transformed this into a citadel, piling the immense 
stones irregularly upon each other, without regard to 
architectural fitness, capitals and sections of columns 
built into an unsightly wall, which served admirably 
their purpose of defense. The bases of two of the col- 
umns are inscribed in Latin, in which the building of the 
temple and its dedication are attributed to Antoninus 
Pius and Julia Domna. Fragments of the richly 
sculptured mouldings are still to be seen on all sides. 
Three portals, one large and two smaller, lead to the 
hexagonal court, of which the walls with empty niches, 
once occupied by statues, alone remain. Beyond this 
is the entrance court of the temple, with niches separ- 
ated by pilasters of Corinthian style, having highly 
ornate capitals. One of these, near the entrance at the 
right, is larger than the rest and is supposed to have 
contained a collossal statue. 

This court opens into the great temple, of which six 
huge columns, about sixty feet high, of yellowish stone, 
only remain in place. These shafts are composed of 
three stones held in place by iron clamps, but the 



447 

Turks have barbarously defaced them and other parts 
of the ruin by making holes to get the iron. These 
columns, bearing an entablature seventeen feet high, 
which have defied the destructive forces of time and 
nature, are undermined and will probably soon suc- 
cumb like the rest. Columns and fragments of col- 
umns lie prostrate on every side. 

The Temple of the Sun is smaller, but in a better 
state of preservation, and is not connected with the 
larger temple. Parts of the peristyle of fifteen columns 
on each side, which surrounded it, are still quite perfect. 
These are surmounted by an entablature and ceiling 
elaborately ornamented in mathematical designs, the 
intervening spaces filled with busts of emperors and 
gods, surrounded by foliage. On the south side four 
columns are in their place, and of the rest only the 
bases remain. One of these has fallen against the wall 
and is so strongly held together by the iron clamps 
that the wall has given way, but the sections of the pil- 
lars are not separated. The ceiling of the temple was 
of enormous blocks of sculptured stone, which have 
fallen, leaving the enclosure open to the sky. The rec- 
tangular portal is flanked by huge monoliths carved in 
various graceful devices. On each side of the entrance 
were stairs leading to the roof; a portion of one still 
remains. 

The walls were filled with rows of niches, three of 
which are well-preserved. At the end opposite the por- 
tal stood the statue of the Sun God, in whose honor the 
temple was built. It is said to have been hollow, ad- 
mitting a priest, who entered from beneath and deliv- 
ered the oracles of the God. Trajan came to consult 
this God before going to war with the Persians, and re- 
ceived the assurance of victory, but the oracle proved 



448 

false in the result". Beside these described are numer- 
ous rooms fir various purposes in different parts cf the 
ruin, some of which communicated with subterranean 
passages. The outer walls have been miserably bun- 
gled by the Arabs, who have built upon the original 
foundations, much of which have defied their destruc- 
tive ingenuity, quite as disastrous as time or earth- 
quakes. 

In tbe dirty modern town, near tbe main ruin, is tbe 
smallest of the temples, dedicated to Venus and well- 
preserved. Eight exquisitely carved monolithic col- 
umns surround it, surmounted by an architrave and 
frieze, ornamented with wreaths of foliage and tooth 
decoration. Justinian transformed this place, which 
had witnessed orgies of wickedness under the name cf 
religion, into a place of Christian worship. Many of 
the columns and statues of these temples were removed 
by Constantine to enrich Christian churches, and some 
of the former are still to be seen in the Mosque of St. 
Sophia in Constantinople. 

In Baalbec, a city full of polytheistic relics, begun in 
idolatry and whose history is only the record of its 
heathenism, the gospel has taken root, growing like a 
solitary shoot out of the ruins of Paganism. Here are 
two Christian missions working side by side as the 
branches of the same living vine. The first visited 
was founded by Mrs, Bowen Thompson, of England, in 
1860, and has had unparalleled success, for it has dealt, 
to a greater extent than any other, with that clas3 
hitherto impossible to reach, the Mohammedans of the 
Turkish Empire, the reasons for which are almost 
entirely political, and have been already explained. 
It is another of those beneficent agencies for which 
Great Britain is foremost in the world, and is un» 



denominational, though in the highest sense evan- 
gelical. It is a reactionary force from High-church- 
ism, and recognizes all that believe in Christ Jesus 
as the Saviour of the world, and work to this end, as 
brethren in him. 

This Baalbec mission has had as many as three hun- 
dred scholars, most of whom have been of Moslem par- 
entage. We were present at the weekly lecture and 
prayer-meeting, the services of which were conducted 
by the native missionary of the Presbyterian Board. 
There were present from forty to fifty, as many as 
would be found in many churches in the cities of our 
own country. They sang gospel hymns and stood 
while praying, and the whole scene seemed strange only 
because we, in America, have never yet risen in faith 
to the Apostle's statement, "the gospel is not bound." 
This mission is one of many founded by Mrs. Bowen 
Thompson, an English lady, of whose further work we 
shall speak later, and is now in charge of Mrs. Mott, sister 
of Mrs. Thompson. It is under the care and management 
of English women, who have, in the midst of violence 
and sometimes bloodshed, dwelt here without fear, ac- 
cording to their favorite promise, " The mountains shall 
depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall 
not depavt from thee, saith the Lord." 

This is only a teaching mission, having women 
workers, and being after the good old style of thinking, 
they give the formal preaching over to the men, and as 
the Turkish government, out of its inborn cursedness, 
will not permit the chapel in our mission building to 
be opened for preaching, the two congregations hold 
their public services under the British protection. This 
mission has flourishing stations at Damascus, Hasbeya, 
Tyre and Zahleh, each under the superintendence of 



450 

European ladies. They have a troop of B' hie readers, 
who get into the Mohammedan household to instruct 
and comfort that secluded ignorance, that wretchedness 
where help is unknown and pity a stranger. They 
conduct orphanages and send the children into Chris- 
tian homes. They have also hospitals, schools for the 
blind, night-schools, missions to soldiers, schools to teach 
trades, &c. The following figures will give an idea of 
the work, w hich extends all over Palestine. There are 
3 male teachers, European ; 15 European lady teachers; 
natives, 96 ; schools, 29 ; pupils, 3 245 ; preaching sta- 
tions, 4; average attendance, 310; Bible readers, 29; 
number of children in Sunday-schools, 1,484. 

The other mission in Baalbec is one of the monu- 
ments of the beloved Gerald Dale, who died last 
spring in Zahleh. How shall we speak of his piety, 
ability and sacrifices for the cause of Christ among this 
wretched people ? We can only give a true idea of his 
sacrifices by comparison. He was born and reared 
in refinement, was of cultivated tastes and scholarly in 
his habits. He could have lived in elegance in his 
own country, for he had the abilities and opportunities, 
but the Spirit of Christ impelled him to this change. 
He had no tastes that were shocked at the work Christ 
gave him to do. He chose the foreign field knowing 
and weighing its self-denials. He entered the work in 
the Syrian mission early, learned the language, which is a 
most difficult task. He married the accomplished daugh- 
ter of Dr. Bliss, President of the Protestant Syrian Col- 
lege in Beirut, who had been born in the field, and loved 
its poor, ignorant, down-trodden people. The Spirit of 
Christ dwelt in her also, and perhaps never were two na- 
tures more strongly set in the same direction. He en- 
tered the field at Zahleh, the metropolis of the Lebanon ; 



451 

to an ordinary American observer a forlorn and depress- 
ing place, a people whose exterior would be, to one who 
could not appreciate their possibilities in Christ Jesus 
revolting. The sight, much less the contact of such 
people, would repel any one who was not moved by the 
value of their souls and the guilt of their neglect. 

He became one of them both in duty and affection. 
Their lot, without the comforts of the gospel, was hard 
indeed, and he became poor that through his poverty 
he might make many rich. He received them into 
his house in Oriental style with a welcome whenever 
they chose to come, and often they chose very un- 
seemly times and came in a condition which would 
have been hard for any not looking beyond the clay 
tabernacle in its rags and baser accompaniments to the 
soul that had brought the Redeemer from the skies to 
go through unspeakably harder trials, He encoun- 
tered treachery and deception, but met it with gentle 
firmness. The devotion of the people was manifested 
on every occasion from his first entry into the field. 
Most missionaries have to live and work years to get 
such confidence. His mariiage to the daughter of Dr. 
Bliss, so long and favorably known, added to his influ- 
ence. This is her native land, and they recognized her 
as a Syrian, speaking their language and knowing their 
trials and peculiar character. This marriage was the 
signal for a general Oriental demonstration on the 
fashion of the parable, " Behold the bridegroom cometh, 
go ye out to meet him." When the groom and bride 
arrived at the place where the road from Beirut 
to Damascus is left for Zahleh, to their surprise 
a breakfast had been prepared for them. Then, 
as they mounted on horses to reach Zahleh, seven 
miles distant, they were met by a company of mounted 



452 

Lancers, who divided into escorts on each side of their 
way, going through graceful evolutions, throwing their 
lances and rending the air with their mirth fulness. As 
they neared Zahleh the people of every condition 
poured out to meet them with shouts and music on 
their rude instruments, and as they entered the streets 
threw from the doors and roofs of their humble houses 
sweet-meats, grains of coffee and flowers, and thus 
brought them to their door and left them until the nest 
day. Then the people began visiting ; about six hun- 
dred appeared, each claiming the privilege of kiss- 
ing the hands of their pastor and his wife. So they 
were installed in their home, in the hearts of their peo 
pie and in the confidence of the natives. 

When their first daughter was born, which is re- 
garded as a calamity, the people made their appear- 
ance in subdued demeanor. They were surprised when 
their pastor brought out his little daughter proudly and 
lovingly in his arms, and this was so amazing to them 
that they went out among their friends and brought 
them in, saying, " Come and see a man who thinks as 
much of his daughter as if she had been a son." And 
from that day opinion regarding the birth of daughters 
was modified, and a great revolution in behalf of the 
unfortunates of all Oriental times changed for the bet- 
ter. This pastor, so beloved, gained the hearts of his 
people, not by condescension, but by becoming one of 
them. When he went on his long missionary journeys 
through the Lebanons or in the valley, he took no ar- 
ticles of European comfort, but ate with the people on 
the floor, slept on whatever they had to give him, 
always their best, though often poor enough, but it was 
sufficient for him that it was the best they could do. 
He never lost faith in men, and believed that there 



453 

were some possibilities of good in each. He -won the 

hearts of the people and became their ideal of what 
was right and proper. They loved him and imitated 
him, believed in him and followed him. They would 
kiss his hands until, if he had been of & less royal 
nature, he could not have kept his humility; in the 
schools, in the church, on the streets they were cot 
happy if they did not kiss his hands in token of loving 
subjection. 

His enemies were made only on account of his influ- 
ence and his attractive life, which was gaining such su- 
premacy, but even they respected him. He had sharp 
contests with the foes of Christ's cause, and common, 
manly honesty was sure to win. They, therefore, were 
throttled at their first endeavors. He was brave and 
could not be cajoled nor int midated. He had a con- 
test with the largest and wealthiest family, just before 
his death, for the possession of a school property on 
which he had paid advance rent, yet they refused to 
give him the keys. But he gained the victory in the 
perseverance of the right, and withal kept the respect 
of the family to which his opponent belonged. He 
wrought incessantly, not thinking of or sparing him- 
self The more the com muni >y appreciated him the 
more he tried to labor for them. He preached with 
great acceptance, and there had been increased relig- 
ious interest for months, taking him away to the out- 
etations, for he was the Bishop of the whole Bekaa 
Valley as well aa of the Lebanon range. He founded 
our mission in Baalbec, which we have visited, secured 
a school property and built a house for worship, which 
the Turkish government has not permitted to be opened. 
But it does not matter, his life and his works are too 
deeply written in the hearts of men for any government 
to hinder or efface. 



454 

Never were fields so ripe for harvesting, never were 
such opportunities opened up when the shadowed hand 
of Providence was laid upon him. It was a Father's 
hand, but so mysterious that his family and the Church 
have not been able to penetrate the mystery. A little 
daughter languished for weeks before his own death, 
swinging, as it were, backward and forward in the 
light of hope and shades of death. His wife was too 
ill to be out of her bed. He had not disrobed himself 
for sleep in weeks. The Sabbath came, but its duties 
were not suspended ; he preached and conducted his 
teachings as usual. In the meantime a swelling had 
made its appearance behind his ear, the result of the 
bite of an insect, to which he had, in his absorption in 
his work and family, given no attention, until with ex- 
cessive weariness he laid down never to rise again. Hi3 
strength failed painlessly, he expressed astonishment at 
the weeping of his wife and friends, who knew he was go- 
ing into his last sleep. When the true nature of the dis- 
ease was suspected it was too late to give any hope. Dr. 
Post, the most eminent physician in the Levant, made 
all possible haste to reach him, but he had gone to his 
rest. He had breathed his life out sweetly, after an illness 
of two days, in the spot where he had wrought for his 
crown. It is a dark Providence which has settled on this 
mission. The people were overwhelmed ; as one said to us 
in almost unintelligible English, " Our hearts are still 
bleeding." The whole community was staggered and 
felt the chill at their heart, for he had been imparting 
an activity even to the dead Greek Church. The perse- 
cuting Maronites had been softened in their implacable 
hate, the Druses believed him to be a man of God. 

Beside the publishing house in Beirut is a spot over" 
which angels watch for the blessed remnants of those 



455 

who are in the Lord, a veritable " God's acre," in which 
stand the stately cypress trees, living monuments be- 
yond the skill of art, native sentinels casting their pen- 
sive shadows over the graves of the best who have trod 
this desolate lands in all the centuries of its decline. 
Here lies this young martyr to the constraining love of 
Christ ; a red granite block of about two feet square 
marks the spot, on which are inscribed the words which 
bereavement suggested. But he is not alone even in his 
dust, his mortal remains are here with a noble host of 
companions, who, like himself, fell in the contest which 
love wages against sin. Near by is the tomb of Dr. Eli 
Smith, further away is that of the weary laborer, sleep- 
ing so well, Calhoun, and near the sainted remains of 
Pliny Fiske; close by, under a hackberry tree, cov- 
ered with the fallen berries, lies Danforth, near are 
Wood and Whiting, and of the women that followed 
the Master and wrought here only a short time and 
laid down to rest in the eventide, was Mrs. Aiken, 
daughter of Judge Cole, of Albany. Never was there a 
spot where it could be more truly said, " Blessed are the 
dead that die in the Lord." 

It has seemed almost impossible to fill the vacant 
place in this Zahleh Station —there are not half 
enough men in this Syrian field — the field is white 
but the laborers are few. There are so few who can 
acquire the language and have the consecration and 
health for the work. May ^ e never again witness the 
God-distrusting spectacle of checking the flow of young 
life into the ministry. The foreign field alone, if the 
Church would provide for them, will require more than 
all the candidates under the care of the Church. Dr. 
Dennis, Professor of the Theological Seminary in Beirut, 
has been laboring to keep the work together and to ad- 



456 

minister to the people in their afflictions, but it has been 
t oo much for him and he now lies prostrate with fever. 
But now, at length, it has been settled that Rev. Mr. 
Ford, son of our venerable and most useful missionary, 
a young man of ability, and the proper person for the 
work, shall take the place. He has been in the field 
of which Sldon is one working centre, in connection 
with his companion, Rev. Mr. Eddy, both being sons 
of fathers who were co workers, Rev, Messrs. Ford and 
Eddy, still at work in Beirut. Mr Eddy's son remains 
in the Sidon field, and will have the duties of both 
himself and his co worker, but if his health does not 
fail has the abilities, consecration and learning equal to 
and beyond many ordinary workers. Dr. Dennis has 
had in the Zahleh field the assistance of Mr. Hurl- 
burt, who has now all the duties on his hands until 
Mr. Ford's arrival. He has had assigned to him the 
duties of teaching ecclesiastical history in the Theologi- 
cal Seminary, and is spoken of as a young man of 
ability and promise. 



MISSION WORK IN SYRIA. 

FROM Dr. Henry Jessup we have gathered out- 
lines of missionary work in Syria which will 
contribute to a clearer understanding of the progress 
of the work by enabling our readers to classify the 
events and trace to their causes the effects visible to- 
day. The first founding period was from 1820-1840. 
This was the time of faith simply ; there was nothing to 
comfort those self-sacrificing men and women but the 
promise, " Lo, I am with you alway." It was the time 
of Fiak, King and Goodell, the men who, out of weak- 



457 



ness were made strong, whose lives were overshadowed 
by the beatitude, "Blessed are they whom having not 
seen have believed." There was no more apparent 
hope in the field at that time than there would be of a 
harvest of corn in the Saharan desert. The first shak- 
ing of the tree of life that its leaves might fly on the 
winds for the healing of the nations, was in setting up 
a printing-press in Malta in 1822, and in Beirut m 
1832 But this, and its accompanying agencies, Had 
hardly begun to be known when the hand of God ap- 
pealed in those confounding reactions whicn, to the 
human mind, tempts it to ask, presumptuously, whether 
God cares for his own work. 

War b^an with its destructive influence, divert- 
ing the minds of men from all that was good, with its 
destmctiveness of business and property, with the m- 
tense uneasiness accompanying it, reaching far beyona 
its apparent desolations. Pestilence walked at lis side 
with its destructive depressions and its wasting* of 
life, accompanied by the paralyzing fear of tne things 
which were coming on the earth, and banishment joined 
these forming an infernal trinity, threatening all society 
and all hope for the future of men's souls. When all 
these had subsided one small row-boat would have held 
all the Protestants in the Turkish Empire. 
"" The first revival movement was made in a girl's school, 
started in front of the church door by Mrs. Dr. Eli 
Smith and continued to her death, which had its ups and 
downs,butthroughallmadesteadyprogress. This found- 
in* period had to be consecrated in blood. The law of 
life is that neither salvation nor moral progress can be 
without the shedding of blood. Martyrdom crowned the 
f ,undmg efforts of this mission. A young man, living 
near the base cf the Lebanon range, overlooking Bei- 



458 

rut, a Maronite and nephew of the Bishop, received 
the truth into a hungry, thirsty soul, and held to it 
with a tenacity that death could not conquer. His 
soul expanded in spiritual growth, his conduct was trans 
formed into the sweetest ideal of Christian life. He 
was a young man, not only of talents, but genius, with 
an enthusiasm that conquered and glorified all about 
him. His influence was growing, and all around felt 
its pulsation. But the Maronite priests, the most hat- 
ing and hateful in all the Lebanons, determined to 
crush it out of him. His uncle, the Bishop, had him 
arrested and brought up to the monastery, not far from 
the cedars of Lebanon. He said, " You must pray to 
the Virgin." But he answered, "No. I will pray 
to the Lord Jesus Christ." He was then placed in 
a monastery which hung up on the cliffs of the 
mountain-side, overlooking the river Kadisha, more 
than five hundred feet above the bottom of the ravine 
and a thousand feet from the top of the mountaia, a 
place of awful loneliness, where no life ever stirs except 
the monks, the jackals or the flitting shadow of the 
passing eagle. It is approached by a blind path, and. 
here he was placed in a cell. In this solitude he lost 
his mind, but would preach by the hour and sing the 
songs of redeeming love until he would fall prostrate 
from weakness. He was cruelly beaten by the monks 
daily, and was finally walled up in a cave near by, 
where he died of starvation. His body was taken out 
and hurled down into the chasm below, and his bones 
lay strewn in the rocks of the ravine. But his name, 
Asaud Shidiak, lives, the people talk it over when by 
themselves, and sigh as with bated breath they tell 
over the steps of tne awful tragedy, and when they dis- 
cuss model Christian character instinctively refer to his. 



459 



There lias been and will be a greater harvest of bless- 
ings from that martyr blood, blood with which the first 
tabernacle of the Foreign Mission church was sprinkled. 
The second period was, in many respects, the forma- 
tive period, from 1840-1860. It grew into form in 
tumults, as all great organisms do ; there were political 
commotions all over the land. In 1831 Mohammed 
Ali of Eaypt, made an alliance with Emir Besnir, 
Prince of the Druses, and sent his son Ibrahim Pasha, 
already celebrated for his victories, into Syria. He 
took Acre and Damascus and gained victories over the 
Turks in the North, the campaign being carried on 
after the European military order. But for the inter- 
ference of the European powers, specially Russia, he 
would have kept on his victorious march to Constanti- 
nople The people were heavily burdened by taxes 
during the Egyptian occupation, and the tyranny of 
Mohammed Ali aroused their hatred, so that in 1840 
Lebanon revolted, and the French government was 
also soon alienated from the Mohammed. Soon after 
the Sultan Abdul Mejia regained possession of Syria, 
with the aid of England and Austria, and re-established 
the authority of the Porte. 

In 1860 the Druses, instigated by Turkish officers, 
organized a general massacre of the Christians of Leb- 
anon and Damascus. Ahmed Pasha not only withheld 
his protection, but is said to have given the signal for 
the slaughter. Many took refuge at the English and 
Prussian Consulates, twelve hundred fled to a court- 
yard, and being promised protection gave up their 
arms and were all murdered. Six thousand perished 
in Damascus, the whole number throughout the coun- 
try being estimated at fourteen thousand. The Turk- 
ish government took no steps for punishing the offenders 



460 

until the indignation of all Europe was aroused; then 
tardy justice arrested some of the ringleaders, among 
them Ahmed Pasha, and beheaded them at Damascus. 
A French army of ten thousand was sent which, with 
the help of the Maronites, put down the Druses. 

Turkey lost control of the Lebanon district by her 
perfidy ; it passed under the protection of the Powers. 
Bat the mission cause was helped by a firman from the 
Sultan protecting the missionaries from persecution and 
insult, and after this was granted a charter securing the 
same protection and privileges from the Grand Vizier. 
Previous to this, in 1846, impulse was given to female 
education in Beirut by Mr. De Forrest, who continued 
in this connection thirteen years. There was also a 
successful boy's school. And in 1848 the first Syrian 
church was organized with a membership of eighteen. 
Soon after the translation of the Scriptures was under- 
taken by the Rev. Eli Smith, who died in 1857, and 
the work was taken up by Rev. Dr. Vandyck, who did 
the rest so well that it will have the hold on future 
Syria that King James' translation has on the English- 
speaking world. It was finished in 1865, a monument 
to the scholarship, faithfulness and deep spiritual in 
sight of this eminent servant of God. 

The massacres of the Christians started, in 1880, a 
new life in Syria — the stunted growth of the Protestant 
Church, by its oppressive limitations, now bathed 
afresh in blood, started up with unwonted power. The 
sympathies of Britain and America had been drawn 
out by the sufferings and martyrdoms of their brethren, 
and appeals in their behalf and the church for which 
they suffered, which would, as it seemed, have to be re- 
planted, stimulated to prayer and giving; men and 
women offered themselves to the field in the devotions 



461 

of the highest religious heroisms. And a new impetus 
was given to education. The Prussian Deaconesses 
started an institution in Beirut with one hundred and 
thirty scholars, v,hich has been productive of Incalcula- 
ble good, and has increased in its benign influence upon 
ignorance and superstition until now its roots have 
struck down into the family life of the people so deep 
that a greater future opens out before it in opportunity 
and blessings. British Syrian schools were opened i i 
1860. There are twelve of these, and in them are 3 ; 0Q0 
children, 1,500 of whom are in Beirut. 

The Free Church of Scotland, in the youth and vigor 
of her life, came also, and started the Beirut boy '3 
school, which has sent its life, learning and moral force 
into society for its leavening. And the old Kirk deter- 
mined not to be behind in the race of soul-saving pro- 
gress, and turned her heart and help to the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel In the form of a Jewish mission, 
which is having slow, but encouraging success, at least 
to the Scotch brethren, who believe in the Jews. If 
Israel ever turns to Christianity it will enter its fold 
as a flock with a Scotch shepherd leading and the 
whole Scotch Church behind coralling them. 

In 1863 a crisis arose in the management of the 
American Board which resulted in the permission of 
the Board to certain of the missionaries to start a col- 
lege if they could raise the money outside. The pur- 
pose was formed out of a sense of need and of the future 
possibilities of such an Institution. It was a bold un- 
dertaking in itself, and bolder in the fact that most of 
the funds would have to be raised in the United States 
in the darkest days of our civil war, when the tide of 
national disasters had set heavily against us. Nothing 
but the audaciousness of Christian faith would have 



462 

meditated such an undertaking. Bat Dr. Bliss was 
the man of both faith and works. He landed in New 
York hoping to get ten or fifteen thousand dollars. 
But when he reached New York and laid his purpose 
before the Hon. William E. Dodge and others, they 
said he could do nothing on so little, and so the amount 
was set at one hundred thousand dollars, which was 
realized, all from the following named persons, some of 
whom are gone, but one cannot realize it as he surveys 
the magnificent buildings of the Beirut College and 
sees their Christian lives being transferred to the crowd 
of young life, who transfer it again to other lives which 
will take their places as of centres of influence in the 
work of recreating this dead Empire. The revered 
name of William E. Dodge stands first, and next of 
those gone is the name of Mr. Marquand ; they are not 
dead, not even are they sleeping, no two being more in 
the world, more actively or beneficently. They live in 
the paradox of that illustrious one of whom it is said, 
"Being dead yet speaketh." Of the illustrious living 
who will share their immortality when they go out of 
time is Mrs. William E. Dodge, Dr. Alfred Post and 
the Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, who is still working for it 
with all his resources in devotion to its progress and 
necessities. 

By the liberality of these and other friends, whose 
names we do not know, Dr. Bliss returned with his 
heart full, hope full and pocket fall; he stopped in Eng- 
land to increase the amount, so that there would be no 
need of trenching on the one hundred thousand dollars 
given for buildings. He was invited to a parlor meet- 
ing in London to present the claims of Syria to British 
liberality. He told them of the gifts of his American 
brethren, but the chairman did an ungracious thing, 



463 

which shows the sentiment in certain circles toward 
our country in its peril. He said, loud enough to 
command all ears, " But, Dr. Bliss, your one hundred 
thousand dollars are in greenbacks," an unkind cut. 

But his reply was prophetic, and no man would 
have dared to make i is who was not loyal to the heart. 
There had been a change in the last twenty-four hours 
from about eighty to forty per cent., which had not 
been heard of by the men in the meeting. Said he, 
" I see by this morning's despatches that there is only 
a difference between the currency of my country and 
gold of forty per cent., and I believe that you will soon 
see a premium for the bonds of my country in gold in 
British markets." 

It brought down the house and dismissed the un- 
manly 3neer, and he received from England twenty-five 
thousand dollars. The building was begun and com- 
pleted in 1874, through all the harrassments of the 
Turkish officials and many of the natives, which try 
the patience and develop the ingenuity of every for- 
eigner who determines to live in this country at all. 
The oath of four Mohammedans settles every question 
in a Turkish court ; they do not even hear testimony from 
either plaintiff or defendant, as the case may be, and 
four such witnesses can be bought at almost any time 
for a dollar each, and as missionaries do not purchase 
testimony the case is one of pure ingenuity. It is a 
great point in Syrian courts, as it is in the United States, 
to be the plaintiff, so it is a race as to who will first get 
the ear of the court. 

Dr. Jessup gave an experience of a case gained by 
him, against a native, by this device :— A Mohamme 
dan commenced building on the ground of the mission, 
claiming prior title, and temporary inj unction was ob- 



46 1 

tained, and when the case came to final issue, Dr. Jcssup 
being plaintiff, had in readiness his four Mohammedans 
to swear that the ground belonged to the mission, that 
they had received it from the officer, opening a street in 
lieu of a part of the mission ground taken for this pur 
pose, a square up, as it would be called in Philadelphia. 
After the witnesses had made their statement " in the 
face of Almighty God," which is their form, the judge 
said, "the case is decided," the defendant objected that 
he had fifty witnesses who would swear that it was his, 
but the judge said, "It is decided." Dr. Jessup, the 
plaintiff' representing the Board, had four Moslems to 
swear that it belonged to the Board and nothing more 
could be done. The devices of foreigners to keep any 
thing are often exceedingly ludicrous. The c fffcials who 
had the opening of the streets were about to open one 
' along the College grounds and a tree stood on the edge. 
If the street authorities were allowed to cut it down it 
would give them some advantage in their tortuous pro- 
ceedings. 

Dr. Bliss was willing to cut the tree down himself, 
but would not permit them to do it, so one morning 
they put in an appearance to remove the tree, but ho 
forbade them. They persisted, when he took a stool 
and sat down by the tree, putting his lorg sinewy legs 
around it in a way which those who know him will ap- 
preciate. The Turkish official insisted that he had the 
right to cut the tree down. " Yes," said the Doctor, 
" but you can't cut it down without cutting my legs, 
which is contrary to Turkish law." But the official 
was not willing to be put off in this fashion, the thought 
was humiliating that the Turkish government should 
be beaten by a pair of Yankee legs. He insisted, and 
the Doctor wrapped his legs more firmly around the 



465 

tree, saying again, " My legs are in the way, and besides 
these legs belong to the United States government, and ir 
you cut them you will have trouble." Even Turkish 
officials have a sense of the ridiculous, and when they 
are fairly outwitted give it up, as did this one, and Dr. 
Bliss removed the tree himself according to promise. 

The College building in Beirut and others connected 
with it are the finest on the Syrian coast, commanding 
in situation. It is large and most admirably adapted 
to the purposes of Oriental education. The dormitorir s 
are separated by arched partitions, through which pure 
air circulates. The ceilings are high, with ventilators 
at the top. The recitation-rooms are well lighted and 
aired. The only defective part is the chapel, which 
has an echo impossible to overcome. But even this 
has been solved by the son in-law and daughter of 
the late benefactor, Mr. Marquand, as Mr. Monroe and 
his wife are about to erect a " conference hall" in the 
campus, beautiful and well-suited to this most impor- 
tant establishment for Christian education, and the old 
one in the main building will be turned into a library. 
Near this building is a rival in beauty and adaptation 
— the Theological Seminary. The rooms are large and 
well-furnished — a better building, though not so large 
as some in the United States. These are built from a 
straw-colored sand-stone, taken from the mountain-side 
not far distant, and trimmed with a lime-stone. Tl:e 
effect, with that wonderful sea in front, as changeful in 
color as the chameleon, is incomparably beautiful. 
This building is the gift both of the departed and 
the living, William E. Dodge and Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, 
and as a memorial of a deceased daughter of the latter, 
Ada Dodge, who died in India, and A. L. Dennis, 
Esq., well-known in New Jersey, and better known in 



466 

Syria a3 the father of one of the most accomplished and 
able professors in the Theological Seminary, who occu- 
pies the Chair of Didactic Theology to the highest sat- 
isfaction of his brethren and the students who have the 
privilege to be instructed by him. 

There is the Medical College, not inferior to either 
of the others, built of the same straw-colored stone, 
which, in this country, where the mountains are nut- 
brown and the sea the deepest blue, contrasts so well. 
This, also, was the gift of the late William E. Dodge 
and the late Mr. Marquand and Dr. Alfred Post. 
It is fairly furnished, but ought to have money 
to give it a better outfit in that work, next in 
importance and sacredness to the gospel ministry, 
the saving of the bodies of men from the diseases 
peculiar to the deadness of the nations to vital religion. 
The statement may be startling, but we believe true, 
that no great revolution will come to the souls of these 
Orientals until there is an improvement on the gospel 
basis of their hygenic conditions. The Medical Mis- 
sionary College and the medical men and women, 
which such institutions are producing, are doing the 
work again of John the Baptist, "Preparing the 
way for the Lord," and opening up avenues for the gos- 
ple, inaccessible in any other way. The institution 
has an able corps of professors. But of the number 
Dr. Post would be renowned in any land, he is not only 
eminent in his medical profession, but as a minister 
of Jesus Christ as well, and he does not permit the 
profession of medicine to overshadow his cure of 
souls. 

There is still another building related to the rest as 
the preparatory department, and differing only in ap- 
pearance in being somewhat smaller and that the body 



of the building is of white lime-stone trimmed with the 
straw-colored. This is also well-arranged to its pur- 
poses, and is understood to come from the same unfail- 
ing friend, the Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, who will not per- 
mit his name to be used in connection with his quiet, 
yet beneficent work. 

The grounds contain, as nearly as we can estimate, ten 
acres, reaching within a few hundred feet of the sea 
and has an outlet to the sea, which ha3 a rock bound 
coast, and gives the best facilities for bathing. The 
house of the President, Dr. Bliss, is capacious and sits 
like a queen arrayed in tropical beauty on her throne 
of hills. There is nothing wanting in either loveliness, 
fruitfulness or fragrance in its surroundings. There 
is the stately Date Palm, with its pendant fruits, tinted 
in every color, crowning its symmetrical shaft like a 
graceful capital. There are the B anyan and tl e Banau a 
tree loaded with fruit going into its golden hue, Fig- 
trees covered with luscious fruit, Orange trees bending 
under their loads, Lemons, Grapes, Pears, besides others 
whose beauties are in their abundant and graceful foli- 
age. There is an entire hedge of Rose Geraniums and 
Scarlet Geraniums as high as a man's head. Coleus 
ten feet high, a Passion flower vine, two years old, cov- 
ering half a balcony, Pond Lilies, Pepper trees with 
long drooping clusters of lavender pink flowers, and 
golden Pomegranates tinged with red. The combina- 
tion was peerless, the whole adorning the high coas£ 
line of the most beautiful sea on the earth and backed 
by the far-famed Lebanons, wrinkled with age, but 
beautiful in the midst of the spoliations of time. 

The College is prosperous, and those who have given 
to its founding and prosperity may rejoice that it is 
keeping alive the names and benevolent purposes of 



468 

their departed loved ones, and it will do the ssrm for 
those now sustaining it when they too are gone. Eng- 
lish is the leading language, though other languages 
are taught, and the wisdom of this will be seen in the 
advantages in conveying and impressing on the ro^st 
learned and influential men of the country true concep- 
tions, freed from the decay of ages, of the gospel of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. The professors are earnest Chris- 
tians, men of real capacity and learning. . We regret 
that we have not seen all of them. But we have met 
Professor Harvey Porter, who has the Department of 
History and Mental Science, and is one of the most 
effective preachers in Arabic as well. He hps con- 
ducted a service in Ahleih all this summer which has 
been well attended. 

There are in the Literary Department seventy-five 
students, some from Egypt, not many Moslems, for the 
reason that they will not be put on a par with Chris- 
tians, nor attend prayers at College. In the Collegiate 
Department are sixty three medical students. Of the 
numbers in the institut'on about fourteen are Maron- 
ites, who are the Roman Catholics natives, and if these 
remain any length of time they throw off the preju- 
dices of their ignorance, and often their old belief itself. 
A few of the students become infidels, but this cannot 
be helped. The Greets are the most liberal and best 
disposed to educational and missionary efforts. Few 
of the students as yet have entered the native ministry, 
probably because there has not, until lately, been a 
Theological Department, and they have not been able 
to go abroad for the necesary preparation. One of the 
most promising Professors is Mr. "West, of Harris- 
burgh, the son of the estimable brother, pastor of 
one of the Harrisburgh churches. He is the young- 



469 

est of the number, but is at home in his Department, 
and from what his co-workers said and from evidences of 
his work remaining from last session on the blackboard, 
we conclude that he is well up, at least, in the mathe- 
matics of astronomy, and for the comfort of his father 
and mother we say we heard only good of their son. 

The religious condition in all these institutions is 
good. The tendencies of the Medical Department are 
all on the side of Protestant Christianity, while a fair 
proportion not only care for the bodies of their fellow- 
men, but lose no opportunity to direct their great influ- 
ence, through their profession, to the uplifting of their 
souls. This will not be surprising when we know that 
all the professors, who are to be their advisers in future, 
as well as instructors in the present, are Christian men, 
and the head of the institution and others, we believe, 
are ministers of the gospel. We met but one of the 
Professors, Dr. Kay, of Virginia. 

These institutions have a Board of Trustees in New 
York city. The President is the honored William A. 
Booth, who has been a helper from the beginning and 
a rightful sharer in the joys of its progress, as has also 
been Mr. Morris Jessup. The property is now worth 
$250,000. 

There is also another institution, not mentioned, of 
equal value, though not so extensive in equipments — 
the Female Seminary, with less means, yet, in the esti- 
mate of the greater value of the home and its education 
of wives and daughters, is not a whit behind in its 
moral and intellectual progress. The history of thi3 in- 
stitution began in the policy of the American Board, in 
the past, not to appropriate their funds to buildings. 
But realizing the necessity of such furniture they gave 
authority to Dr. Jessup to collect money for the pur- 



470 

pose, which he did, mostly from the Presbyterians, who 
had the same confidence in the American Board which 
has happily existed in all its history. This money was 
given by the well-known names of their time, and will 
continue as long as benefits of their good doings shall 
follow them. Philadelphians will readily recognize 
the honored names of Matthias W. Baldwin and Messrs. 
Brown and Alexander Whilldin ; the latter will be com- 
forted in the sorrows of his sunsetting by the fact that 
this portion of his scattered fortune has not gone to 
waste, but is bringing blessed returns in the thought 
that through life's sunshine and vicissitudes he has not 
lived in vain. 

In this honored list is also Mr. Jay Cooke and Mr. 
Pitkin, the latter helped Dr. Jessup in many ways to 
the blessed consummation. In New York and other 
places the amount was made up to $15,000; thedonois' 
names we do not know, but they are entitled to all the 
blessings and more than we have been able to describe. 
This school was the first in the Levant to charge tui- 
tion fees Many were the dark sayings of wiseacres on 
their harps of a thousand strings that it would prove a 
failure, but last year tuition fees, paid by people most 
of whom in our country would be called poor, amounted 
to $1,200, which shows that in half-heathen lands, 
as everywhere else, any thing of value, in the estima- 
tion of the people, can be paid for. 

The Principal of this School is Miss Everett, of 
Plainfield, Ohio, and next in place is Miss Thompson, 
now acting Principal, the daughter of that eminent mis- 
sionary who gave to the world that interesting work 
" The Land and the Book." Both these leaders rank 
high in scholarship and executive abilities. There are 
as regular scholars from eighty to one hundred. This 



471 

School is a part of the Presbyterian Board's possessions 
and receives a small yearly appropriation from it. 

Before leaving our educational institutions in Beirut 
a word will not be out of place in regard to the 
duty of the Church and of all interested in the 
welfare of their fellow-men in this land, from which the 
world has received so much. These institutions can- 
not carry on their good work on the properties they 
have ; these are only tools and we thank God that the 
Church has so many and that they are so good, but 
tools will not keep themselves sharp, neither will they 
work themselves; they must be kept in order and 
worked, and tools well-worked create necessities for 
larger furnishing. Neither can a greater ;ervice be 
rendered by multitudes of Christians and philanthropic 
men and women of business who have been successful 
and would help needy causes if they knew where and 
how, and especially in this year of jubilee in our 
churches. Let such remember how much more they 
can get out of a dollar in this land than at home, more 
to comfort when the hollowness of wealth is disclosed 
to the soul in those shadowed hours that must come 
upon all. All these schools need greater facilities. 
Many can help at the close of life or when sickness has 
laid them aside by sending their libraries, which will do 
them no more good, to the Theological and Literary 
Departments of the College. Christian or philanthopic 
physicians can send libraries that they need no longer, 
or by giving money to procure apparatus, &c, to the 
Medical College. Those who can do no more could 
furnish a room or found a scholarship, which does not 
require a great amount of money ; or those searching 
for objects to which to devise their estates in their last 
will and testament cannot provide for usefulness when 



472 



they are gone in any way, in our judgment, that will 
make them live so long or well. On all these points 
definite Id formation can be obtained at the Board of 

Foreign Missions in New York city. 



BEIRUT AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 

^NE would grow sick at the scenes of moral dreari- 
ness everywhere pressing on the beholder were 
it not for the compensating reliefs in the supreme beau- 
ties of nature. The whole East is a land with the 
shades of death upon it — a land of tombs which has 
outlived tombstones, but still their shadows are athwart. 
Its dust is only the fragments of life greater in its past 
than in its present. There is an air of sadness, the 
gaudy garments of brightest colors only disclose the de- 
pressed, half-hopeless spirits of the forms within them. 
The tones of the voices of men and creatures have in- 
describable elements cf sadness in them to the European. 
The cries of traffic, the calls to prayer, the calls to 
beasts of burden all tend to depress by their strangeness. 
There is nothing here keyed in the major diatonic 
scale. The minor is aU that is breathed forth or heard 
in the Levant. 

Wonderfully beautiful is nature, as we have seen it 
in spring-time in her garments of exuberant green, 
countless flowers cling to the very niches— how full of 
blossoms and heavy of odors is the softened air. This 
is the land of peerless skies, where the clouds are illu. 
minated. No fierce overhanging storms, with wrathful 
flashes or mutterings, disturb the calm equipoises of 
nature. The sea is clear as crystal, and with no greater 
movements than bubbled ripples, no raging tides dash 



473 

themselves against her shores, no roar of waves, no 
winds let loose, howling or moaning like lost spirits. 
Here a child can wade into the sea without losi»g its 
poise. But what is as strange, the air is so colorless 
that great objects come and crouch at your feet. The 
Lebanons rise in majestic grandeur and recede from 
the sea fifteen or twenty miles to their summit, 
but at the coast they look so near as to tempt one to 
lay a hand upon their heads. Ascending these heights 
the sea, a dozen miles away, seems so near that ono 
fears to go down lest he step into its bosom. 

Beirut is the gem of the Syrian coast, in the main well 
built, with wider and straighter streets than most East- 
ern cities. The houses are of stone, large and com- 
fortable, in the Turkish style of graceful arches sup- 
ported by light columns, with great windows in the front, 
so that half of the second story front is glass, with sash 
in variegated mulliorss in circles and shapes to corres- 
pond to the arches. Most of the houses have beautiful 
gardens full of half-tropical fruits and flowers. The 
houses of the wealthy Turks are palatial, ceilings from 
twenty to thirty feet high, with halls thirty to fifty 
feet wide, enclosed by great stone walls, entered by a 
lodge and imposing gates. Beirut began to assume 
importance when the missionaries were driven to the 
Mediterranean by tne massacre of the Druses and other 
Turkish bloodthirsty fanatics. The impress of the mis- 
sionaries is seen in every thing, the whole population 
becoming unconsciously European. 

The schools are doing the work of breaking down 
long cherished customs, and it is becoming the fashion 
for women who have the means to be educated, and it 
is impossible for ignorance to battle against such a tide. 
The American Presbyterian mission here is a grand 



474 

one, with roots strong and a body that has stood 
the storms and grown in their violence. Turkey 
has done her best to uproot it, but she has weakened 
at every effort. The Book Publishing Department, 
one of the most constant aggressive agencies, has 
been hindered and throttled, but never seriously 
injured. It has been, and is, furnishing a large per- 
centage of the school books of this part of the Empire- 
It is not hard to see that those who make the school 
books of a nation will shape its thoughts in religion and 
future destiny. 

In the upper part of Beirut, towards the moun- 
tains, is a splendid property or properties, speaking 
as confined to their several uses. The Publishing 
Departments are spacious and admirably adapted 
to the several lines of the work. At the entrance 
of the buildings are offices, sales-rooms and deposi- 
tories, rooms for book finishings, press and bind- 
eries, type founderies and finishing rooms for the plates 
of thirty editions of the Scriptures, approved and 
stamped by the Turkish Empire- There are store- 
rooms for unfinished work, electrotyping, folding, pack- 
ing and engine rooms, and all that pertains thereunto. 
The building is not large, but every inch of space seems 
to be utilized. The field has been somewhat curtailed 
by the capriciousness and oppressions of the Turkish 
government and by the rivalries of the French Jesuits, 
who are supported by the French government, so far 
as can be seen, purely for political reasons, still there 
was never so grand an outlook for this work. 

In Sierra Leone and adjacent territories are about 
twenty millions of Mohammedan 3 speaking only the 
Arabic, and they are applying for the Arabic Script- 
ures, and as the Publishing House has the most perfect 



475 

edition ever issued, in clear type and fine binding, hav- 
ing the advantage of the imprimatur of the Turkish 
Empire as entirely satisfactory, they at once naturally 
commend themselves to Mohammedans. Beside these 
thirty editions of the Scriptures, so approved, they have 
about two hundred and fifty editions of other books 
just examined by the government censors and also ap- 
proved. We intended to give the number of volumes 
on hand and the sales, but fear that it may croTvd 
out other interests which would be more readily 
read. All we will say is that in our judgment this 
arm of the service is most effectually managed in the 
interest of the Church for the extension of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom by the Rev. Samuel Jessup. 

The next object of interest is the church property, 
built by funds given in America and by the Presbyte- 
rian Church of Scotland and the people of Beirut. In 
front is a high iron gate which opens into a yard under 
delicious shade from well-grown trees of the country, 
and in the centre a fountain playing in cooling jets, 
wreathed in rainbows, the most inviting object we have 
seen, especially in a land where water and moving air 
are twin blessings. The building is of the same stone 
as the College, in handsome architectural proportions, 
surmounted by a clock and bell. Just here an inci- 
dent will show the changed temper of even the Moham- 
medans. The bell and clock had arrived from Amer- 
ica when the stone tower was about half finished, and 
there was no money to complete it and no expectation 
but in waiting, no one knew how long, until somebody 
would give it. But the people of the city, Jews, Greeks, 
Europeans, and Mohammedans, who hate bells and 
have destroyed more of them than any other people on 
the earth, contributed liberally to finish the tower and 



476 

put up the bell, so that tlie wags had their fun out of 
it, saying that the Jews put on the cross and the ■ Mo- 
hammedans put up the bell of the Syrian Protestant 
church. But there was a reason for this unusual dis 
position on the part of the Mohammedans. Dr. Jes- 
sup is the prince of Arabic speakers, using the language 
not only with accuracy, but fluency; not being a 
native he euphonizes its harsh gutturals, but more, he 
tells them such truth as they do not hear anywhere 
else, of which they recognize their need. Then he is 
one of them, as a neighbor respecting all that is gor d 
•about them, living justly before them, dealing honestly 
and truthfully. Then, too, in this church is no image 
or picture of any kind, which is so offensive to Moham- 
medans. Not infrequently those who have not been in 
the church and desiring to hear Dr. Jessup came to the 
door and looked in, and seeing no pictures anywhere 
will exclaim, "This is the Church of God!" and go in 
wholly placated, and reverently listen to the Word, to 
their delight, in their own tongue. 

This is the country where personal influence in liv- 
ing a Christian life tells. Dr, Jessup's name is author- 
ity even in a Turkish Custom House, as some young 
men told us, when in difficulty and not knowing the 
language they kept repeating his name, and the officers 
became more complacent and accommodating. He 
was their neighbor, and so they would treat them 
kindly for his sake. 

At nine o'clock on a sultry Sabbath morning, when 
the air blistered like heated steam, we entered the por- 
tals of this beautiful church to worship God in Arabic, 
but God's worship has his spirit in it in any language, and 
to any hearer who worships from his heart. The first 
hymn took us straight home quick as thought could 



477 



fly, and to the cros .j as well. It was " R >ck of Ages 
Cleft for Me," the people sang to the organ accompan- 
iment. We sang in Eoglisk and the congregation in 
Arabic, but it all went into the volume of praise, God 
only could sort out the nationalities. It was one in his 
ears. Dr. Jessup read the Scriptures and the people 
followed on the pages of their Bibles, and when he 
prayed they rose to their feet, and when he came to the 
close they all recited the Lord's Prayer in concert. 
The next hymn had a golden link of association. It 
was " My Faith Looks Up to Thee." The sermon was 
impressive, this could be read in the faces of the peo- 
ple. 

Singing in this country is not an accomplishment 
generally— there are serious difficulties against it. The 
vocal organs of the Arab-speaking people are defective 
in the production of complete harmony, and then there 
has been little cultivation of the voice in singing. It 
was, therefore, a surprise that the whole congregation 
sang so well, but one told the secret, which we appreci- 
ate, and venture to assign it a place in the labors of the 
accomplished wife of Dr. Je3sup, whom we have had 
the great pleasure of knowing as a, daughter of the 
estimable family of the late Ifev. Peter Lockwood, of 
Binghamton, N. Y. Mrs. Jessup organized a choir 
and instructed its members, and by them the congre- 
gation, until their church and congregational music 
would be respectable anywhere. 

Dr. Jessup is an exceedingly impressive preacher in 
his manner. One may not know the language in which 
he speaks, but it is impossible not to know the spirit. 
The people show its effects in their attention. A little 
boy not more than six years old sat in front of us do- 
ing what was an amazement— he never took his eyes 



478 

away from the face of the pastor, so far as could be 
seen, all the sermon through, which was about thirty- 
five minutes long. Dr. Jessup is graceful in manner 
and earnest, and from his long beard, rather than from 
years, looks like a patriarch, and one of the best too, 
Abraham perhaps; we know he is not like Jacob. 
There was a good congregation present, though many 
of the people were away on their summer vacation. 
But the church, which holds about seven hundred, 
was two-thirds full, and when the people are in town it 
is always well filled. 

After service we entered the beautiful chapel, the 
gift of Mr. Chauncy Dale, of New York city, brother 
to the lamented Rev. Gerald Dale, who built it as a 
memorial to a departed son. It is worthy of a father's 
faith and affection, who soothes his sorrow in turning 
his life more nearly to Christ. The church and Pub- 
lication House are on the same plot of ground, the 
Female Seminary is near and the whole is valuable, 
and growing more so. At a fair average the Publica- 
tion property, the machinery and stock on hand, the 
church properties of the mission, including the school 
buildings, are woith $250,000. So the Presbyterian 
Church has for its twenty-seven years work in this mis- 
sion all the good of every kind, all the impressions yet 
to go into action, all the seed sown, all the saved in 
these years gone to their rest, all the possibilities of the 
young life born of the age past, and $500,000 in pro- 
perty to show for its sacrifices and labors in Syria, and 
yet there are heartless, unbelieving members of the 
Church at home saying, " What's the use? The money 
is sunk ; it has done no good ; it takes five dollars to 
get one in the field." Will any point us to a firm, 
starting with no capital but diligence and faith, that 



479 

can show so much, with so little loss even in a money 
calculation ? It has been more than prosperous, rather 
a magnificent success. 

On the mountain is a village so high that the tem- 
perature is moderately cool, which is a great blessing 
to the missionaries in Beirut and the families. It is 
known as Aaleih, and here most of our workers spend 
the hot months. Bat the work goes right on, Dr. Jes- 
sup preaches every Sabbath in Arabic in Beirut. In 
Aaleih is a church to which Professor Porter ministers 
during his stay, preaching in both Arabic and English. 
There is a work in this place which several of the mis- 
sionaries' wives conduct — one of real Christlike charity. 
They gather in, once a week, the poor native Greek 
and Druse women of the village, and the sight would 
sadden the hearts of the most careless. About sixty 
of these women come, bringing their babies and some- 
times all the children of the household, as they cannot 
leave them at home. Twenty-five babies at this meet- 
ing would be a moderate estimate. The mothers are 
barefoot, many of them have hardly enough clothing 
to be decent. This meeting is conducted by Mrs. Den- 
nis, Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Jessup, with a native teacher. 
The latter is an example of what Christian culture can 
do for the natives in mind and soul by which the very 
features are beautified and the whole general appear- 
ance changed. These natives have some features which 
redeem them from the vassalage of poverty and its 
degradations, they have the brightest black eyes ever 
seen in a human face, the whitest and most perfect 
teeth, and when listening their long suppressed intel- 
lects flash out as they pay the deepest attention. These 
Christian teachers read Scripture text, which they 
memorize and repeat, and they are taught to sing 



480 

hymns. At the meeting attended, Mr3. Porter ad- 
dressed them on the Scripture, "Though your sins 
he as scarlet they shall be made white as snow," and 
when any thought absorbed them they would ask ques- 
tions, and approving would nod their heads or speak 
out in their enthusiasm. Their home duties, even of 
the most practical kind, are kept before them, and their 
progress under all their disadvantages can be seen 
sometimes in surprising ways in bearing their great 
trials. The seed of divine truth will grow wherever 
life itself can survive, and often the brightest trophies 
can be gathered like diamonds from the dirt. 

About two miles away from Beirut, at a village named 
Suk el Karob, is another missionary station and school, 
under the care of Pastor Pond. Here is a handsome stone 
chapel, built under this pastor's direction, in which we 
heard him speak in Arabic to about one hundred and 
twenty-five people. It seemed to us a good sermon in 
its spiritual effect, and to a soul in its receptive mode this 
can be conveyed without a knowledge of the language, 
but we saw men in tears, and Rev. Samuel Jessup, 
who spends his vacation here, and is himself one of the 
best preachers in Syria, said it was a most effective dis- 
course. The school is of long standing, and one of the 
best. In this place is a memorial of the devotion of one of 
our country-women, significant of her appreciation of the 
toiling sisterhood in the life saving service; it is a well 
constructed stone mansion on a spot overlooking the 
ocean and exposed to the cool breath of the Lebanon s, 
intended for the use of the female teachers of the schools 
during the summer vacation. 

We had the great pleasure of enjoying the hospitali- 
ties of these young ladies, and by invitation of those 
present led in the dedicatory prayer by which it was 



481 

set apart to its beneficent purpose. The only regrets 
were that the givers were not here to behold its present 
and future prospects, that Miss Loring, formerly of 
Scran ton, Pa., now Mrs. Taylor, we believe, and the 
sisterhood that helped her accomplish this work, had 
not been present to enjoy its opening, its beautiful sur- 
roundings, and the future prospects for blessing which. 
arched its future skies. 

Two miles further south is the village of Shimlan, in 
which the British Syrian Mission has a school. We 
only saw the school house, for it was vacation, but the 
hospitality of Miss Eddy and her sister-in-law, the 
daughter of our esteemed friend Dr. Nelson, was abun- 
dantly apparent. The occasion was one both enjoyable 
and profitable, for beside the delightful social inter- 
course of the occasion we met the Rev. Mr. Eddy, now 
Bishop of the Sidon field since Mr. Ford left it. 
He will be one of the future strong pillars of the mis- 
sion work here if his life is spared. He has been nine 
years in this field, and his sister has the care of the girl's 
school. Sidon is the working centre of a district, has 
training schools for both male and female native helpers 
and a preparatory department to fit students for college. 
In the girl's boarding department there are from forty 
to forty-five, and day scholars about seventy. In the 
boy's boarding school are forty and sixty day scholars. 
Sidon is also the centre of book distribution and colpor- 
teur work, having twenty-five out-stations. There has 
been great pr gress here since our former visit seven- 
teen years ago, as there is now a group of churches 
near Mount Hermon. 

In the Basaltic region, on the Hermon range, we 
stopped on our former vis't under an oak tree 
for lunch, and while there about forty of the most vil- 



482 

lianous looking Druses encircled us, and whetted 
their knives on the soles of their sandals, feeling their 
edges and occasionally casting a glance to see the effect 
upon us. "We felt that the same policy would be pru- 
dent, so taking out our revolvers we commenced ex- 
amining them, and the experiment was a success. They 
made an orderly retreat, beginning with the youngest 
and down to the eldest all moved off, till only the Sheik 
remained, to whom we extended 3ome hospitality. 

Strange to say, in the village immediately at the foot 
of that hill on which we then sat is now one of our 
churches, and a whole cluster is near Hssbeya, the place 
of the massacre of 1860, where the Turkish government 
has closed the schools, and of course the consequences will 
not surprise when we say thirty six murders have taken 
place in the last three months. But there are in this 
group of churches seven hundred Protestants, who are 
ministered to by Mr. Eddy, with his co-worker, Mr. Ford, 
who has just returned from a tour of pastoral work and 
inspection. The work here is chiefly among the people 
of Greek and Maronite faiths, very few Moslems ever 
become Christians, one reason being that as soon 
as one is converted the Turkish government immedi- 
ately drafts him into the army. There is great desire 
on the part of both Greeks and Moslems for teachers, 
as they believe that our teachers are better than all 
others, both in the things taught and in their religious 
lives, and have better influence over their children. 
The bishop of a Greek church, in the Northern part 
of this district, secured cne of the native teachers to be 
the head of the school in his district, and said no one 
was fit to teach except those trained in American 
schools. 



483 

The centre of this district, Sidon, is a dilapidated old 
town on the site of the historic Sidon, and yet such is 
the power of association, of birth and the devotion to 
duty incited by the love of Christ that we heard Miss 
Eddy say, "Dear old Sidon"— the place of her life 
work. The ruins of its former grandeur are here,, 
at least what has not been carried away, and more are 
being excavated. Last spring a discovery was made 
of great value to archaeologists and of interest to all who 
care to compare the past with the present. We are in- 
debted to Rev. Mr. Eddy, who assisted in its disclosure, 
for an account of it. There are men who work these ruins 
for the stone which can be gotten out, which nearly pays 
for the work. One of these quarrymen, who had been 
getting out stone and seeking for curiosities, discov- 
ered a shaft thirty feet deep, at the bottom of which 
were four doors entering four chambers, the roof of which 
was natural rock, and the floor paved. In the south 
chamber were two sarcophagi, one was of black marble 
highly polished without carving, the other of the purest 
white marble, with a great lid of the same, carved into 
an arch, but not open. From the four corners of these 
lids projected lions' heads, and on its front were two 
symbolical figures facing each other with uplifted wings, 
and like figures were at the other end, but with this 
difference, in one set the bodies were of animals and 
the heads of birds, the other was the solitary body of a 
bird with a human face. 

There was on the sarcophagus an ornamental frieze, 
consisting of figures on the front, two Centaurs facing 
each other and attacking a fallen warrior, who appears 
to be protecting himself with hi3 shield. On the back 
were two Centaurs carrying a stag. The whole sar- 
cophagus was about ten feet long, eight feet high and 



484 

five and a half wide. Water was dripping from the 
roof and had filled the smaller sarcophagus, whose lid 
had been removed a little to one side. In these were 
found three human skeletons and five of grayhounds. 
In the east chamber were two sarcophagi of the finest 
marble, on the side of one was represented a funeral 
pageant, first two female mourners, then two horses 
with grooms walking by their side, neither saddled nor 
bridled. Then four horses abreast drawing a chariot 
in which stands a warrior. Then four other horses, 
drawing a covered two-wheeled chariot, which answered 
the purpose of a hearse. This was followed by two fig- 
ures walking. The sarcophagi were carved to repre • 
sent the porch about a temple, with eighteen sta'uettes, 
each about three feet high, standing between the col- 
umns, three upon each end and six on each side. The 
capitals of the columns were Ionic, with the exception 
of those at the four corners, which were Doric. This 
is not offered to our readers as a description, but as a 
suggestion which will lead the mind into a general con- 
ception of the buried marvels of this famous old city. 

The work of excavation is hindered, as usual, by the 
Turkish government, which is as much at heart op- 
posed to the disclosures of the past as to the spectres 
of the coming future, and when hidden things are un- 
earthed the Turk takes them to Constantinople and 
puts them in his arch geological Aceldama in the Seraglio. 
Within the circumference of this old city of Sidon are 
great heaps of shells, " M urex,' ' from which was extracted 
the famous royal and priestly Tyrian purple. These 
are not a product of this coast, but were brought from 
Greece, Sidon is only the manufacturer. This place 
has no more living importance, its value is that of the 
cemetery, its trade will be largely in the relics of the 



485 

past. There is no harbor and nothing to harbor. Its 
people are poor and miserable in appearance, but the 
spirit of intellectual aspiration is stirring in their hearts 
for their children, they have made great sacrifices in 
their poverty to this end. 

The Mohammedans would employ and support mis- 
sionary teachers if they could get them. They cannot 
trust their own even in the commonest ideas of morals. 
Their desire that those who come after them shall be 
better than themselves is at least commendable. The 
great want here is more teachers who can teach in both 
Arabic and English. The one is helpful to the other. 
In the mission schools is taught the Bible with Scrip- 
ture proofs and the Shorter Catechism. They have 
Sunday-school every day in the week but Sunday, and 
would have it then too, but the teachers go out to 
preach or hold religious services. Seed-sowing goes on ; 
this is the business of life, but there is a deal of quiet 
harvesting, examples of which are ever coming into 
observation. 

A Mohammedan father was imprisioned because he 
allowed his son to attend the mission schools. After a long 
incarceration he was released, but it had broken his spirit 
and he soon died, but the work for which he suffered 
went on. This son after his death returned to the mis- 
sion. The thirst of his childhood, for which his father 
suffered, came back, and he asked to be examined in the 
Catechism as one of the conditions of entering the school 
again, and it was found that he knew it better and 
comprehended it more fully than the average Christian 
children. But euch examples among Mohammedans 
are not frequent, they are fanatical, ignorant and as 
a whole debased, though there are exceptions, mere 
remnants that could be made better if they were not 



486 

entangled, soul, mind and body, in the most ingenious 
system of bondage on earth. As a class they are de- 
praved to an extent that appalls and to a depth that beg- 
gars description. All the sins of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah are practised, and in greater variety of abomina- 
tion than inspiration has dared describe, The fine 
sentiment which we hear from lanud of co -tparative 
religion have no existence, they are gilded lies to neu- 
tralize the necessity and power of the only religion that 
has or can save men and nations. 

We hear most plausible stories of the temperance of 
the Mohammedans. We are told that the Koran for- 
bids wine and that no Moslem disobeys it. This is true. 
He will not drink wine, " that is the Christian's drink," 
" the pig's drink." He will not break the command of 
the Koran, but he will drink himself drunk for days on 
fig brandy or grape whiskey. Moslems are only tem- 
perate in wine drinking, they fill themselves with what- 
ever else will intoxicate. In some places, where the con- 
tact is close, he drinks absinthe as greedily as the worst 
of the French and Italians. The fact becomes more 
sadly apparent that there is no place where the depraved 
human appetite will not gorge itself except where con- 
science reigns supreme, and where both the individual 
and society live a sacrificial life, animated by the high- 
est conceptions of the law, " Love thy neighbor as thy- 
self." 

Missionary effort here is directed to the destroying 
power of drink, for drunkenness is as great among the 
nominal Christians of the Greek Church as among the 
Mohammedans. The fact is the vices of one are largely 
the vices of the other, and how can they be different 
when the priesthood of the Greek Church are far more 
ignorant of the Bible than the Mohammedan cf the 



Koran. A single example of this ignorance, well au- 
thenticated, will suffice to assure our statement. A 
Greek priest, addressing a school in the hearing of one 
of our missionaries, said, "The Lord sent Jonah to 
Sodom and Nineveh, and he prayed that the city 
might be spared if there were ten righteous in it, but 
the Lord said if they were all righteous except ten he 
would destroy it, and so he did." The children in the 
missions are taught all that is possible of moral and 
hygienic truth, and have the examples of the strictest 
abstinence to save them from the fell destroyer. 

The question of* Foreign Missions has become the 
test of a standing or a falling Church. Almost all 
evangelical churches are in the ranks of the saving host. 
On a mountain, in sight of which we write, is the mis- 
sion of the Friends or Quakers of England .and Amer- 
ica. Philadelphia or Pennsylvania is represented in 
both life and benevolent moneys in this institution. 
It is a beautiful place. As soon as it was devoted to 
the work it was planted over with the Lebanon pines, 
which have grown up and clothed the nudity of the 
stony cliffs. These pines are highly odoriferous, and 
the air i3 loaded with their exhalations, so invigorating 
and helpful to diseases of the throat, lungs and also to 
catarrh of the head. 

In th's young forest our Quaker friends have one 
of the best institutions m Syria, and in a quiet, but 
practical way are working the leaven of the gospel into 
the depraved masses around them. They have changed 
the character of the people about them, some have 
espoused their form of faith, although this has not been 
the most prominent feature of their work, which has 
rather been to make the people better in the practice 
of virtue and religion. They have a hospital and 



488 

schools for both boys and girls and lecture upon 
themes of general interest. They not only make men 
and women better, but wiser, or perhaps wiser to be 
better. It is a testimony which gladdens the heart to 
see in it all real unity in the purposes, spirit and work 
of the Church of Christ. Here living side-by-side are 
people widely different in several points of doctrine of 
Christian modes and policies, but one in heart, one in 
aim and one in their faith in the great sacrifice who 
gave Himself for us, who also henceforth made it the law 
of our spiritual being to give ourselves for each ether. 

In the heart of the city of Beirut is the order of 
Prussian D3acanesse3, one of the most Christlike in 
spirit and work in the world, pure, devoted Christian 
women, who, for the love of Christ their Lord, give 
themselves first for five years and then, as most of them 
do, for life, to the practical duties enforced that great dra- 
matic parable in which our Lord causes to pass before 
us the final judgment scene and the principles on which 
it will proceed. "Ye did it" and "ye did it not" to 
my brethren, for or against me their federal head. 
Many of these women are of noble birth, many of fami- 
lies of the highest distinction, all are, so far as we could 
leara, devoted to their work, faithful to God and to 
their duties in helping and saving men. The Sister 
Superior in Beirut told us that there were about eight 
hundred in the order, scattered all over the East, and 
even as far West as our city of Pittsburgh, Pa. There 
is here also a large hospital, built by the order of the 
Knights of St. John in Prussia, which is under their 
care as nurses, and under the treatment of the medical 
facility of our Presbyterian Medical College. 

There is a Scottish mission working in the general 
harmony, under the care of the Established Church, a 



489 

mission nominally to the Jews, but working in any or 
all directions within their reach. The pp.stor, Rev. Mr. 
Mackey, ministers to the English-speaking population 
worshipping in the church built jointly by the Scotch 
and Americans, in which Rev. Mr. Jessup officiates in 
the morning to his Arabic congregation. "We regret 
that the Rev. Mr. Mackey was absent, and that the 
schools were not in session during our stay. 



WAY MARKS IN PALESTINE, 

JROSSING the Lebanon range, a day's ride in a 
diligence, Damascus is reached, and its Bible 
history will ever make it a place of deepest interest. 
Naaman, the Assyrian, who defended its rivers, Par- 
phar and Arbana, was certainly more patriotic than 
wise— his servants, as is often the case, had more 
sense and were better logicians than their master, and 
saved him from the chronic doom of pig-headedness. 
Beside, neither one of these boasted rivers is of much 
importance, and would not pass for creeks iu America. 
The water is good in both however, but at the time of 
our visit neither were deep enough for a man to dip him- 
self once, and seven times would cause a water famine. 
Here, too, along the crookedest and dirtiest street 
the proud Saul of Tarsus was led from blindness into 
light. If the same pavement existed then as does now 
it was a hard road for a blind maa, and if it was called 
" straight' ' it must have been by the blind Saul, who 
could not know better, or else it was a grim joke. It 
is a hot, dusty place, and but for its past would have 
no present worth a passing notice. But how grand a 
page in the world's history is that of Damascus, and how 



490 

little it takes of moral force to make a commonplace 
town great. All spots are illustrious where the grace 
of God gains victories. Here Paul spoke the first 
words which declared to the world his new manhood ; 
here he was received into loving fellowship with those 
whom he had come to put to death, and here the Apos- 
tle had to submit to his first, and perhaps greatest, 
humiliation, which was being let down, between two 
days, in a basket. 

Damascus has not improved much in appearance 
since we saw it last, but has an increasing business, 
not only in its own peculiar products, but as a centre 
through which the trade from further East must 
come to Beirut. There has been a mission here for 
more than thirty years, it was baptized in the martyr 
blood of 1860. We regret not being able to know 
more than the fact that it is making slow progress in 
this very hard field. The United Presbyterian Church 
of America carried it on a long time in connection 
with the Irish Assembly, Dr. Crawford at its head ; it 
is now exclusively under the care of the General As- 
sembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, and has 
several prosperous schools on the east side of the Leb- 
anons. 

The Lebanon Mountains cannot be seen or crossed 
without thought of the extensive business carried on 
between King Solomon and King Hiram. Solomon, 
being a Jew, was too much for Hiram in a bargain, as 
may be inferred by what the latter called the cities 
which he received for his cedars delivered at Jaffa, he 
said they were " shabby," which in our time would 
mean that he felt himself worsted in the transaction. 
The pilgrim on this range, now so barren, can hardly 
believe that the whole mountain was covered with 



491 

swaying pines and odorous cedars. Only a few of these 
remain, but in spots the ground is covered with a young 
growth which in half a century, if left alone, will bring 
back the former beauty and humidity to Palestine by 
bringing back the two material blessings she most needs 
— timber and moisture. The odor of cedar greets the 
senses all about Beirut. It is sawed there every day 
by the old-fashioned whip-saws until the air is filled 
with its grateful perfume. 

Another waymark thrusting itself into vision is the 
Carmel range. One never hears this word without the 
recurring memory of the great conflict on it, between 
Elijah, for God, and the idolatrous people, for this was 
Baal's country, who, no doubt, had his throne and chief 
followers at Baalbec, about sixty miles north. Jezebel 
belonged to this form of idolatry, and Sidon was a 
stronghold of the priests of Astarte. They were known 
by their robes of Tyrian purple, for which this city was 
so famous. The contest settled the question of sovereign- 
ity as between omnipotence and impotence ; and this 
victory has sent its impulses down to the present hour. 
The spot is well marked, for such is the character of 
this country that historic spot3 cannot be entirely lost 
— the conformations are so sharply defined, so close, so 
real and ever present, that one is compelled to the con- 
clusion that God intended it as a stereotype cast on 
which the coming ages might read as they run. There 
is now scarcely an important spot mentioned in the 
Bible or concurrent history that cannot be so identified 
or approximated, so that cavils are evidences of idiocy., 
The mountains and valleys are so crowded that one 
can stand but a stone's throw from the actual spot, and 
vision will compass it surely if no nearer approach has 
been made. 



492 

From Carrnel can be seen the great plain of Esdraelon, 
through which runs the river Kishon, and in sight are 

the sites of Ahab's palace. Jezreel is here, from which 
Naboth's vineyard was in sight. Leaving Jezreel and 
its tragic memories we come to a spot of blessed relief. 
It ought to be called hospitality made immortal — one 
of the flowers in life's deserts. It was called Shunem, 
and a resurrection or resuscitation is its chiefest monu- 
ment. It was to Elisha what Bethany was to the 
Saviour, where unselfishness dressed the wounds and 
healed the hurts which selfishness had made.. Hospi- 
tality always pays, laying up treasures for us which 
moth and rust do not corrupt. It entertains angels 
and brings more than angelic blessings, giving rs 
a good face wherewith to ask mercies from both God 
and man. The woman knew where to go when trou- 
ble came ; she had had the opportunity of discovering 
real worth in her own house. Very quickly mercies come 
to those who have not been forgetful to entertain stran- 
gers, for all whom they have received are straightway 
changed into kin, wondrous kind. The prophet drop- 
ped all in the moment of such grief. The Shunem of 
the prophet's day is gone, and only some mud huts 
are left, but we saw here a strange indication of the 
truthfulness of the Bible statements that this was a 
land of milk and honey. 

The only fuel of the country is a mixture of manure 
and straw made into little round cakes an inch thick 
and six in diameter. Of these a pen about three feet in 
diameter and five feet high was built, and of it the bees 
had taken possession and had filled it, so that the honey, 
melting by the heat of the sun, had run down the sides 
until the outside was covered with the precious sweets. 

Esdraelon is a museum of tragedies. In it Gilboa 
rises, the altar of the slain. Here Saul and Jonathan 



493 



fell, whose death inspired David's peerless eulogy. 
Out of it gushes an inexhaustible fountain of the purest 
water, enough to supply an army of one hundred thou- 
sand men, and this has, no doubt, been the cause of the 
fiercest battles for possession of this boon to thirsty 
men in the almost tropical heats of more than half the 
year. Gilboa is a cone-shaped hill, symmetrically 
round, on which, in springtime, are boundless treasures 
of flowers set on living green. It seems to have been 
cut out of the lime-stone and rolled into the middle of 
this wonderful valley and set on its base as a monu- 
ment of the battles that have raged and the slain that 
have fallen in this cockpit of the historic centuries. 

In sight is Nain, where the Lord wrought an antici- 
pative miracle, pointing to the grandest consummation 
of his redemption. Still in sight is Endor, the monument 
in ruins of ancient spiritualism, and in view also is Mount 
Tabor. It appears as if God knew that men would fight, 
and arranged the fields of battle so that in their insane 
rage they would evolve great issues not for themselves, 
for armies never get the advantages of their own vic- 
tories, but so that their posterity should rise on the grave 
hillocks of the battle-fields < into the moral advantages 
gained. The Plain of Esdraelon, like that of Philistia, 
had all the advantages of water and position for 
which armies strive, and so it has felt the measured 
tread of the hosts of Assyrians and Babylonians from 
the East, and Egypt on the South, France from the 
West; indeed, what nation has not at the ocean end of 
this plain, or on it, entered in bloody fray? The 
valley determined the style of its warfare, the fiercest 
and deadliest both in courage and weapons. 

When the Israelites, so victorious in their mountain 
fastnesses, bad to confront the Canaanites in this val- 



494 

ley, they murmured, saying that the Canaanites, who 
dwell in the land of the valley, have chariots of iron. 
But courage and a just cause are mora than a match 
for these, for Barak, inspired by the song of Deborah, 
rushed from the hills and demolished the nine hundred 
chariots of Sisera. Over the very ground on which 
our eyes rest passed the army of 8 ^nacherib, here he 
came down like a wolf on the f >!d, and was followed 
by the Roman, the Crusader and the Turk. Tahor 
itself was not too sacred to give name to abatt]e fought 
ia sight of it by Napoleon when marching from Egypt 
by way of Jaffa, and though dead he still speaks in 
the infamy of his inhumanities, which floats in the air 
along this coast, which neither wind of ocean nor 
sirocco can purify nor bear away. This was the scene 
of the massacre of prisoners, and where he ordered the 
wounded, sick and dying to be poisoned in the hospi- 
tals. He was the man who said, " I both propose and 
dispose," but whose vain boast wa3 turned into utter 
discomfiture by a few invincible English troops, who 
help the fort at Acre. 

It is a field of blood, a veritable Aceldama, and so 
deeply was this impressed on the popular mind, or on 
this account prophetically chosen by inspiration, that 
the Apostle John, in his Apocalyptic vision, locates 
the last great conflict of the world, which is to close its 
ages for the incoming reign of peace, the battle of 
Armageddon, which is Megiddo, the ancient name for 
the Plain of Esdraelon. 

Tho elements of peace and war are always found side- 
by-side, only a mountain separates this blood-stained val- 
ley from the home of the Prince of Peace —Nazareth. 
But peace is never obtained without exhaustions, it is 
always victorious over conflict. A terrific lime-stone 



mountain must be climbed, the worst for horseback travel- 
ling ever encountered, and when the height was reached 
the descent was worse. The hoofs of the horses and as?es 
of at least forty centuries had worn a groove on the 
soft rock in the beginning, but by exposure and use it has 
become as smooth as glass, so that when the horees entered 
this cut a stream of fire followed their hoofs, shod with 
steel plates. But this could not go on without a brake, 
it was becoming dangerous. We had often heard of 
the value of the tail hold, and if it slipped what would 
come after? But the value in this case was estimated 
and appreciated. The donkey-men took hola of t 1 e 
ponies' tails and slipping slowly let us down in safety, 
but not without fear that the tail hold would slip, and 
horse and his rider be cast heels over head. Naza- 
reth was not reached without perturbation, and with but 
little admiration. It is a place exceedingly mixed iu 
population, with constant frictions between Latins and 
Greeks as to who posses3 the holy places, and both en- 
force their claims in a most unholy way. 

The miracles claimed to have been wrought are op- 
pressive. One of these is that on the 10th of May, 
1291, the house where the Virgin bore the Saviour wa i 
miraculously carried to Recanati, from thence to a 
neighboring mountain, and from there to Loretto, Italy, 
where it is still held in the greatest veneration. But 
all the value it has is in the fact that the wonderful 
life given for the redemption of the world had its un- 
folding here. There are three places which must be 
illustrious, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Calvary. The 
carpenter's shop is shown in which he wrought, the 
synagogue in which he delivered his inaugural address 
after he had read from the prophecy of Isaiah those 
wonderful words which have comforted, cheered, deliv- 



ered and inspired ever since. The facts are all straight, 
whether the sites are or not. The fountain to which 
the daughters of Nazareth came to draw water i3 no 
doubt genuine, and women are still staggering under 
their burdens as they did two thousand years ago. 

The town is now all nominally Christian. It is said 
that there are no Jews in the place, they are Greeks 
and Latins. A few miles north is the famous Cana 
of Galilee. On the dim outlines of the battle-ground, 
over toward the Sea of Galilee, is Lubia, where Gen- 
eral Juneau held the Arabs, falling back on Cana, where 
he was reinforced by General Kleber, and by the con- 
bined army defeated them. 

This is a valley of great fertility, broken only by the 
ridge that forms the hilly rampart back from the shore 
of the Sea of Galilee. On the top of the range, which 
ends in this bluff, was fought the great battle on which 
turned the fate of the Crusaders in Palestine. Here and 
in Italy, Spain and Mexico vital religion lost nothing by 
the defeat, for the Mohammedans are no more hopeless 
to Christianity than the ignorant Papal hordes that her 
domination has or would have produced. On the shore 
of the Sea of Galilee the Saviour's greatest words and 
works come up out of the shore which time has desolated. 
We hear " thou Capernaum and Bethsaida." The hills 
beyond locate the great miracle of the feeding of the five 
thousand, and the encounter and disenchanting of the 
Gadarene demoniac. Among the Oleanders, even now 
in richest blossom, lie columns at the former sites of 
Capernaum and Bethsaida, which will rival those stand- 
ing at Athens; they are prostrate and the sections are 
separated, but it is easy to see that they helped each 
other up once into grace and beauty. 



497 

Tiberias, of the Roman occupation, is sitticg in his 
ruins, commanding the Sea of Galilee, the only object 
that has not been worsted by time. It looks incongru- 
ous to see her so bright and well favored, her face 
wrinkled only in rippled smiles, while her mistress at 
her side is so tattered in her garments. Earthquakes 
have shaken down her palaces, broken the gates of the 
city and filled her streets with the rubbish of her 
former grandeur. It is now a filthy graveyard of 
things worn out - desolation is written upon all. The 
only living creatures are the fleas. Here, tradition says, 
live3 the king of this tormenting order. Oar experi- 
ence on a former occasion would lead to the conclusion 
that when the devils went into the hogs, which ran 
down violently into the sea and were choked, only the 
hogs were choked, the fleas on them and the demons in 
them formed a junction and live and possess and tor- 
ment. The only relief we had was in having our iron 
bedstead carried out into the margin of the sea, and 
washing off the stock on hand we got in before they 
could swim up to renew the contest. 

The Scotch brethren have a medical mission to the 
Jews here. It is j ust like them to be always hunting 
for opportunities on the rim of the impossible ; but they 
have a good man, patient, hopeful and long suffering, 
and even the Jews will be obliged to surrender, 
though it may not be until the morning of the resur- 
rection. It did seem a little rough to send a mission- 
ary to contend at the same time with the Jews and 
the fleas, but the Scoich character is both forceful 
and comprehensive, and their faith in it will be found 
equal to all emergencies. The rest of the coast, until 
the great Plain of Sharon is reached, is barren and un- 
interesting, but behind the coast line are places that 



498 

have their names written in the imperishable Word, 
and cannot be lost because of their past activities, though 
they are out of sight in the present. 

Over the first installment of lime-stone rocks, on the 
way south towards Jerusalem, is Botban, a name that 
will be recognized by the children, to whom Dof.han 
and Joseph will ever be inseparable. Here the lying 
cruelties, which cast his brethren so much years after, 
began and were consummated. We seemed to hear the 
echoes of his tearful pleadings still in the winds that 
sighed over the bleak hills. From here they could see 
him slowly taken from their g^ze, as they thought, for- 
ever. Here also Elisha saw the hills round about alive 
with horses and chariots of fire. These are monumental 
memories which still light up this scene. Looking to 
the south, at the descent of this range, is a cone- shaped 
mountain, beautiful for situation and surrounded on all 
sides by a fertile plain, which, when clad in its spiing 
beauties, must have the glory of the tropics. Its sides are 
terraced round and round in spiral form, the earth is 
held in place by walls of beautiful ashler eight or ten 
feet high, in some parts as perfect as the day it was laid. 
This is Roman work, as are all these ruins. In the 
days of the past the soil was carried up on these 
levels, and in it grew Vines, Olives, Figs, Pomegranates 
and the richest treasures of flower wealth. The moun- 
tains around are all grooved, wrinkled and brown with 
age. 

The terraces extend to the mountains, forming the 
circle in which Samaria sits as mistress, even in the 
common ruin. On the north west side are magnifi- 
cent columns, some standing and some in ruins, with 
heads separated from the phafts, as if time itself had 
erected a bastile for decapitating art and had carried 



499 



e 



on the work to nearly the end of its destructive abilities. 
The ruins under foot had all the sacredness of human 
remains, for what wonders of life had they seen, each 
fragment had been an eye-witness to thrilling events 
out of which the world's history has been built. The 
city which once crowned the mount dates from nine 
hundred years before Christ, when Qmri, king of Israel, 
bought the mountain for two talents of silver and built 
a city upon it, which he called after the name of 
Shemer, the former owner. 

Here, one hundred years later, we find a splendid 
capital in which Ahab, at the instigation of the un- 
scrupulous Jezebel, built the Temple of Baal and a 
palace of ivory, and here this female demon wasted 
debauched and destroyed the people until the land 
stank with her infamies. The resources of this famous 
city can be understood in the fact that it withstood a 
three years siege from the army of the Syrians, who 
came from the North and invested it so effectually that 
there began a lively trade in human flesh. In the end 
God delivered it in such a way that men were bound 
to acknowledge that he alone saved them On these 
heights the Prophets Elisha and Elijah stood, and taey 
traversed the paths over which we are walking. Their 
shaggy forms and grim visages are constantly coming 
into mental vision. # # 

The Romans, who idolized magnificent positions and 
all that art might create, were not slow to appreciate 
the possibilities of Samaria, and made it the capi- 
tal of Central Palestine. It was the heart s delight < t 
Herod the Great to find a place to decorate witn arch- 
itectural adornments. He erected that colonnade 
which is over a half mile long and must have had not 
far from five hundred columns, for after the earth- 



500 

quakes, wars and convulsions of twenty centuries sixty 
are still standing, and these are not less than ten feet in 
diameter at the base and about sixty feet high. All 
these were in place, and the magnificent work was in 
its splendor when our Lord so often passed backwards 
and forwards from Jerusalem to Capernaum. He does 
not mention it because it was no part of his mission to 
descant on what man had done, there wss but one fact 
in his history worth talking about, and this was that 
man had gone astray and that he had come to lead him 
back into his lost purity and its estate. He would not 
have even mentioned the Temple in Jerusalem but to 
point the fact of the nation's rejection of heaven's prof- 
fered mercy and to teach other nations the desolations 
that come from being abandoned of God. 

Over a mountain range and down a valley, a 
valley, however, only in name, is Nablous, once 
called Sychar, old in incident and the maker of 
history. Jacob was its first hero, who probably 
passed through it the day after his troubled sleep on 
his hard pillow at Bethel, and like a new convert, when 
first sensible of the greatness of his deliverance, was 
purposing great monuments of gratitude. All along, 
as Jacob trudged up the narrow valley that led into 
the ancient city, he was ruminating on the size of the 
altar he would build to God when he got rich. It 
might even pass into a pyramid, so great would be his 
sense of obligation, if it kept on increasing as it had 
ever since he left Bethel. He saw himself coming 
back in a very few years to keep his vow. But it is 
astonishing how these young fervors give way before 
selfishness, and how men imagine that somehow the 
things they begged of God as the greatest favors get to 
be their own in fee when they are, as they suppose, out 



501 

of danger. Two Irishmen, it is said, were out on a lake 
in a crazy craffc in a squall ; they had only poles to work 
it, and soon they were beyond poling depth. One be- 
gan praying to the Holy Virgin, but the other kept on 
feeling for bottom, and when he had touched it, he 
cried out, "Paddy, what's the use of praying when you 
can touch the bottom with the pole?" Jacob went 
on and got into the sheep and cattle business, which is 
trying to a weak conscience. It is reported of the late 
Dr. McCluskey, of Western Pennsylvania, when mourn- 
ing the desolations of the church created by the rich 
men of his congregation buying the farms of the poorer 
ones and putting sheep |on them, that he said, " My 
brethren, I fear the devil and the sheep will run all the 
Presbyterians out of Western Pennsylvania." It is 
certain that the devil and the sheep got the better of 
Jacob, as Jacob got the better of his father-in-law. 

The altar business was doubtless relegated to the 
past, and Jacob excused himself for his enthusiasm, as 
some backsliders of to-day plead the "baby act" for 
giving up the church ; that they were so young when 
they united with it, or that they were excited, or they 
did it to please their friends. Whatever was Jacob's 
line of defence for neglecting his vow for eighteen 
years we do not know, but we do know that the Lord 
punctured the callousness which had grown around 
his heart by the sharp, incisive command, "Arise, 
and go up to Bethel and . . . make there an 
altar unto God." One of the strangest things in 
human nature is that in its afflictions it fails to 
make connection with neglected vows for an explan- 
ation of disasters. Jacob passed through a sorrow 
the spectre of which made him shiver in dying, and 
yet it never once suggested to him, so far as we know, 



502 > 

Bethel and its unkept vow. The perfidious conduct 
of his sons toward the Shechemites, consummated in 
their murder and the disgrace of his daughter, ought 
to have started a resumption of payment of all unre- 
deemed currency, but it did not. But this must be 
said in his favor, that he arose and went at last; how 
he was hurried off we know not, but he did not start a 
moment too soon, for following events came thick. He 
had scarcely commanded his family to put away their 
idols and be clean, and had no more than buried them 
under the oak and got to Bethel and completed his 
long neglected vow, when Rachel died. A man is in 
a sorry plight to bear staggering sorrows when his un- 
kept vows come and grin defiance and reproach in his 
face and laugh at his calamities and mock when his 
fear cometh. 

Nablous has some business activities. It has not 
been laid to sleep. There are seventy springs rushing 
from its mountain sides, joining each other they hasten 
down to the sea, and the people seem all unconsciously 
to be following their babble. The city has age enough 
to be respectable even in the Orient, for it started be- 
fore the captivity, before the ten tribes were carried 
away to Assyria, and its history is older than Jacob's. 
The oil presses are at work as they were in the Saviour's 
time. Soap of the best quality in the world is made 
in abundance, but all the armies of the Crusaders could 
not compel the people to use it. Soap and unspeakable 
dirt lie side by side, but there is no power equal to the 
producing of an universal oneness of the twain. There 
are facts which first saw the light between these moun- 
tains which have given it a world-wide significance and 
interest. Here the last remnant of the Samaritans, not 
over one hu dred and fifty souls, are gathered, a waiting 



503 

their departure out of the land of the living. All they 
have left to show the traveller for his pains is a little 
stunted, dilapidated synagogue, daubed with alternate 
layers of whitewash and the dirt of ages, and yet it has 
a manuscript of the Pentateuch which they declare to 
be the oldest in the world. It is yellow enough to have 
been soaked in the first freshets of the flood. They 
have nothing else left but pride, presumption and dirt, 
but, fortified by these, they declare themselves to be the 
Church, the true Church in a line of unbroken hand 
succession from Aaron. 

The only surviving priest of Aaron on earth reiter- 
ated this fact at our previous visit, rather harped on it, 
declaring that there was not even a fractured link. 
We said, as pleasingly as possible, " You have your sym- 
bolism in the bears." *' How is that ? In his strength ?" 
"No; in his extremities, he trusts in his paws." 
Whether it was the villianous character of the pun, or 
whether he comprehended a distant analogy, to our sur- 
prise he did not enthuse. Three times a year these 
people go up to Gerizim and keep the festivals pre- 
scribed by Mcses, and are the only Jehovah worship- 
pers who still offer burnt sacrifices. Only from Geri- 
zim does the smoke of the dim t ffering of the past still 
arise. 

The utmost minutiae is observed in the keeping c f the 
Passover. With hasty repast of bitter herbs and un- 
leavened bread they eat the Paschal lamb, with girdles 
about their loins and staves in their hands, as if about 
to take instant flight. Their real history most proba- 
bly dates back to the times of Nehemiah, when, offended 
at not being permitted to take part in the rebuilding 
of the Temple, they separated from the Jews, and 
have added another to the miraculous tenacity of 



504 

humanity to the ideas that gave birth or progress to 
some moulding force. The ascent of Gerizim was 
made through exhaustion and profuse perspiration. All 
triumphs are, in this country, washed in this kind of 
preparation. This is the Mount of Blessing, but across 
it are lying some shadows of Ebal's curses. It is sis 
hundred feet above Nablous and about two thousand five 
hundred above the level of the sea. As we were mak- 
ing the ascent the sun was coming forth in the varied 
glory of his Oriental costume, sweeping the dews from 
the earth with the skirts of his robes. 

Gerizim is the stairway to Ebal, the twin altars 
heaved up from out of the fiery bosom of earth to be 
the altars on which the law as a blessing or a curse 
was laid, and when our feet stood on the hoary brow 
of the Mount of Blessing centuries rolled in upon us 
with their fragrant records, and we were subdued 
thereby. But a glorious prospect rewarded the toil 
of hours. On the west the Mediterranean Sea lay 
like a Bleeping giant clad in his purple, skirting the 
sea at the south was the Plain of Sharon, on the east 
Jacob's well and the valley gladdened by the springs 
that come down the mountain sides, In the distance, 
gleaming in the sun, was Joseph's tomb, which is kept 
well whitewashed. What a strange perversity of 
human nature is shown in the fact that about the 
only patriarch who did not need whitewash should 
have s) much of it. North, in fall view, was 
the top of Ebal. On Gerizim are ruins, almost 
lost to sight, which point back to a magnificent 
temple. The Mohammedans occupied it with a little 
Mosque, now turned into a lime-kiln. From here the 
blessings of the law were shouted across whatever of 
the city was between, and curses sent back after them. 



505 

The Jews were always after skilled in pitching curses 
after others, and so the Jews and the Pope of Rome 
have had a monopoly of the anathema business ever 
since. 

From Nablous the way lies down a widening valley, 
exceedingly fertile. At the entrance, between the 
mountains Gerizim and Ebal, is Jacob's well, as it ia 
called. It is, however, a cistern, the water was brought 
into it through a conduit from some of the many 
• springs on the mountain sides. Jacob's cistern is now 
one of those broken cisterns that will hold no water; 
like all the spiritual supplies of Jacob it has run out. 
Bat we hope the time will come for the digging out of 
these old wells for water which, as the Lord said to the 
Samaritan woman, as he rested on this well curb, will 
be of the kind " which if a man drink thereof he will 
never thirst again." 

From Nablous to Jerusalem is about twenty-five 
miles; this is guessing, for distance in this country is 
measured by the horses one bestrides, or the donkey or 
pony. The site of Shiloh is passed, but here are only a 
pile of stones, a few black goats, two or three lonely 
trees, and this is all, her glory is departed and she is 
left in her shadows. Once the dwelling place of the 
Ark of God, now a goat shed. It is a soiled and 
faded leaf in God's many paged book of earthly vicis- 
situdes. Bethel alone is worth a passing moment be- 
tween us and Jerusalem. All that is left to mark the 
place are the countless lime-stone rocks of every size 
and form, and Jacob must have had hi j head on some of 
them and his body on as many of the others as it would 
cover. It seem3 strange that he took of the stones of 
the place one for his pillow. We cannot conceive by 
what law or analogy he made choice, or how he could 



508 

have found, if lie had desired, any thing else on which 
to put it. But it is the dream that has transferred 
Bethel into veneration and given it a holy place in the 
most sacred experiences of God's providence. We 
see Bethel by brighter vision, by the enlarged vision 
of faith, by faith itself made the evidence of things 
not seen. We have the declaration of the Lord, " Here- 
after ye shall see heaven opened." We have had the 
heavens opened wide and the King of Glory has gone 
through. Its gates have been sjar ever since for prayer, 
and aiigels have passed and repassed from the cham- 
bers of the penitent and dying in carrying supplica- 
tions to their destination and blessings to expectant 
hearts in exchange. 



JERUSALEM TEE GOLDEN. 

THIS poetical conception must be purely heavenly, 
for in no sense is Jerusalem in Palestine golden, 
either in wealth or beauty. Its hills are covered in the 
spring with living green, this is exceedingly short-lived, 
and soon becomes the color of an American butternut. 
But Jerusalem may be added to the general illustra- 
tions of the fact that the world moves. It has not 
moved off its hills, but moved onward while upon them. 
The growth of the city in the seventeen years since we 
saw it is to us a constant astonishment. It is now 
nearly as large outside the walls as within them, and 
the buildings are incomparably better. Seventeen 
years ago the Russian hospice was about the only build- 
ing outside, now the exterior city extends to the top of 
the hill from which descent is made on the way to 
Damascus, and to the northward in line with the Dam- 



507 

ascus gate there must be from three to fwe hundred 
houses; several European countries have large and 
handsome Consular houses, built of the white marble 
so abundant. This stone is little harder than chalk 
when taken out of the quarry, but hardens quickly. 
It is no great thing to be a practical sculptor or stone- 
cutter in Jerusalem. If Solomon's artists hcd had to 
cut American or Scotch granite there would not have 
been so much to admire in the ancient city. 

The population of this new Jerusalem consists of 
Jews, who have come to rest after the toils of business 
life ; some, perhaps, with the idea that Palestine will 
be restored to them, and thit they must be on hand to 
get the best sites, or perhaps they have come to see the 
last sunsetting on the hills of Judea. They are pour- 
ing in from all points of the compass, speaking all 
languages, but still Jews in face, manners and mental 
and moral characteristics. There is a goodly number 
of German Adven' ists, a few Mohammedans and some 
American and English cranks. Jerusalem is the bet- 
ter for their presence and their improvements, for they 
have built handsome residences of dressed stone, with 
red tile roofs, have paved the streets and kept them 
clean, and in Palestine especially cleanliness is next to 
godliness. 

We shall in the outline description we propose to give 
begin at the Jaffa gate and go around on the south side. 
First we come to the Tower of David, near the Jaffa gate, 
the foundation stones of which certainly belong to the 
ancient structure. There is always evidence distinctive 
and clear between Mohammedans' building and that 
of every nationality before or since. The Mohamme- 
dan builds only out of the ruins of what he destroys ; 
his wall has every thing in it ; capitals of exquisite 



508 

beauty are pitched into the wall upside down, with 
pieces of columns *.nd the bases on which they stood, 
great stones and small ones lie in ridiculous confusion. 
This Tower of David, as it is called, is about eighty feet 
high, has a moat around it and is solid up to the last 
story. An ancient draft or bevel upon the edge of 
the stones place it, in antiquity, at Herod's time at 



Below is a steep hill covered with rubbish and 
fragments of ancient walls and buildings which fill the 
valley. There is enough of depression to identify it as the 
place of the pools, now empty, one above the other, and 
once connected with Solomon's reservoirs, about eight 
miles south of Jerusalem, near Bethlehem. While we 
are on this side of Jerusalem we may call attention to the 
improvements of the last tnree years. There is now a 
well-graded road finished to within three miles of 
Bethlehem, which will before long be complete to Heb- 
ron. Bethlehem is a lively modern town, the most 
European in Palestine, except Nazareth. The French 
Catholics have occupied this place with monastery and 
schools for a long time, and the population is largely 
French— there are few of the native population left. 
The reservoirs of Solomon are still in a good state of 
preservation, and rank among the greatest marvels of 
the East. They are about the same size as the reser- 
voirs of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, are built of 
cut stone in beautiful finish, the work being in most 
parts as perfect as when placed in position. Only one 
has water in it, though the springs supplying are un- 
failing. During the lifetime of Sir Moses Montifiore 
they were repaired and kept in good condition by him, 
but at present the supply is cut off. The water was 
brought over eight miles by mains of stone, a hole was 



509 

"bored through blocks eight or ten feet long. One of 
the reasons for their going out of repair is that the 
shepherds cut holes in the conduit to get water for their 
flocks. The engineering skill at the time it was made 
is marvellous. Along the grades on which these mains 
was laid was most probably the royal chariot- way of 
the king. 

The new macadamized road crosses Gihon just below 
the first pool, on the south side of which is now a row 
of about fifty two-story houses, newly built for poor 
Jews by the Rothschilds. On this side is David's gate, 
and from here the valley breaks down into the ancient 
Hinnom. The name suggests the idolatries of the 
Canaanites, who here worshipped Moloch and caused 
their children to pass through his fires. On account 
of its human sacrifices it became accursed and the 
synonym of perdition. It received the offal of the city, 
which was burned day and night, so that the fires 
never went out. It was the figurative Gehenna, and 
originated in the New Testament Scriptures, " the smoke 
which ascendeth forever and ever." Overlooking it is 
the "Hill cf Evil Counsel," on which, tradition says, 
Judas consummated the terms of the betrayal of Christ. 
It is suggestive at least that the two places should be 
adjacent, evil deeds and places attract each other. 
It shows also the connection between sin and all 
misery, for at this south-eastern end of the wall is the 
leper quarter, where the poor creatures, separated from 
all human sympathy, die unpitied and unhelped. The 
sight is appalling, and one wished that curiosity had 
not prompted this awful vision of indescribable misery. 

Further down on the south bank of Hinnom is a 
tomb -like place, built of stone and running into the 
hill, called Aceldama, said to be the place for the 



510 

burial of strangers, which was bought with the money 
of Judas' infamous traffic. Hero are remnants of 
human bones, and it is frequented by hyenas, but our 
readers will judge for themselves whether they will 
accept it as that spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles, 
Still further down, near the junction of the valleys of 
Jehosaphat and Hinnom, is a well of abundant waters 
known as En Rogel, which will be remembered as the 
place where David's spy communicated what was go- 
ing on in the palace between Absolom and his advisers, 
while King David was an exile from his throne. 

Toward the east wall, at the Zion side, is a fountaia 
of bright and sparkling waters gushing out of the Hill 
Ophel, once within the walls, which still bears the 
euphonious and sacred name of Siloam, to which, a-? in 
the long centuries of the past, the women come with 
pitchers, jars and skins, and by whom the whole vil- 
lage of Siloam is supplied. S me oi these water vessels 
are the skins of goats with the hair on, which helps to 
keep the water cool. The skin is just as it is when 
stripped from the goat, with the holes sewed up. Young 
women carry one of these full of water, which is a stag- 
gering load, but it is a woman's lot here to be the water- 
carrier, it being considered an everlasting disgrace for 
a man to perform the service. 

To understand the city it must not be forgotten that 
there are three mountains, Olivet, which faces the city 
on the north-east and forms one side of the valleys of 
Jehosaphat and Kedron, and Mount Moriah, which 
forms the other. On the top of Moriah stood the tem- 
ple. Between Mount Moriah and Mount Zion, upon 
which was located the king's palace, was a deep valley 
now nearly filled up with the rubbish of centuries— the 
Tyropean Valley. It rose above the Jaffa gate and en- 



511 

tered between the valleys of Jehosaphat and Hinnom 
at the point of tbe spring of Siloam. Across this valley, 
once nearly one hundred feet deeper than it is now, 
was a magnificent stone bridge from Mount Moriah to 
Mount Zion. Parts of the arches of this bridge are 
apparent. On the Moriah side of the valley is the 
"Jews' wailing place." Here, no doubt, the stones are 
to be seen which belonged to one of the ancient temples, 
and which the Jews in their passionate grief or tradi- 
tional style have kissed until the surfaces of some are 
worn away by the pressure of human lips. That this is 
sincere on the part of a few sentimentalists and & few old 
men and women might be admitted, but that the vast 
multitude care for any thing more than mere custom 
would be a lack of sincerity to the plainest convictions to 
declare. It is the continuation of the same abominable 
heartless formalism which the Saviour quoted against 
them, " This people do worship me with their lips, while 
their hearts are far from me." 

They can, with the greatest facility, carry on their 
reading of the prophecy, their waiting and tear-shed- 
ding while observing every stranger that approaches. 
We could not but think of the story of a young widow, 
who was wailing in a most distressing way over the 
body of her husband at the grave and who, misunder- 
stood her pastor who was advising her to be patient, 
and cried out, " You say I must be patient, I am ; you 
ought to have seen the way I went on at the house. 
This is nothing to the way I went on at the house," 

We now continue our way up the valley of Jehosa- 
phat until tbe Kedron, which enters it, is reached at a 
point at which tbe east side of the wall would cross, if 
continued, to tbe Mount of Olives — or to make it 
plainer, if possible, the brook Kedron opens out into 



512 

Jehosaphat. The name Kedron means " black valley," 
from the rocky sides which cast their shadows over it. 
We climbed the steep hill, on the Mount Moriah side, 
to observe the only exposed part of the ancient wall re- 
maining to our time. Here a tunnel was run nearly 
a hundred feet below, which disclosed the foundation 
stones, which can be identified by the peculiar bevel 
around their edges. On these stones, in Venetian red, 
the numbers and drafts by which they were shaped 
are as distinct as if made but yesterday. 

This wall was over one hundred and fifty feet high, 
the reason for which will be seen in the fact that the 
top surface of Mount Moriah was not sufficiently broad 
for the structure and court to be placed upon it, hence 
the necessity of building this retaining and fortifying 
wall to so great a height. After the wall was built the 
hillside up to the wall was filled to a level with the 
top. But inside the walls rested on tremendous archea 
and pillars, confusing labyrinths of these still remain 
under the pavement, and structures now occupying the 
place of the former temple, whether from the time of 
Solomon or Herod, is not well settled. This south- 
eastern wall is all that remains, except the part next 
Mount Zion, already mentioned, known as the " Jewb' 
wailing place," which claims any antiquity. This was 
the pinnacle of the temple from which our Lord was 
tempted to cast himself down. Throned on this height 
rose the Temple of Solomon with its columns of preci- 
ous stones and roof of gold. It stood out solitary and 
clear and could be seen, it is said, from the south side 
of the Jordan and Dead Sea. 

There is a strange peculiarity in the atmosphere here 
which crowds upon the observer objects fifty miles away ; 
distance is annihilated by the laws of reflection and re- 



513 

fraction. But it was not the temple only that gave glory 
to Jerusalem. Upon Mount Zion, one hundred feet 
higher than Mount Moriah, on which the temple stood, 
was seen the splendid palace of the great king. Nor was 
this all, Jerusalem in every part was a city of palaces. 
The first rays of the rising sun were captured by their 
polished pinnacles and glowing roofs, and the last rays 
of the setting sun lingered on them until shrouded in 
darkness. "Beautiful for situation, the j >y of the 
whole earth." Beautiful in the sunrising, beautiful in 
its noontide, and more beautiful in his parting. It is 
not strange that it should have suggested to the 
Prophet of the Apochalypse the idea of the heavenly 
battlements, the gates of pearl and the streets of gold. 

Following the wall of Jerusalem along the Geth- 
semane side the " Golden Gate" is reached, which was 
once a thoroughfare into the area of the temple, the 
one most used, not only because most direct from the 
East, but because itself a part of the temple surroundings. 
It is now built up, the Mohammedans having a tradition 
that when this gate is opened it will be by a conquering 
army, and that they will have to go. Three or four 
hundred yards further on the same side is what is 
known as Saint Stephen's Gate, getting its name from 
the martyrdom of that most illustrious New Testament 
deacon, which tradition holds to have taken place out- 
side just beyond. But the best authorities are against 
it ; it is believed now that the martyr's death occurred 
outside the Jaffa Gate. 

We must, in thought, go back now to our point of de- 
parture, for every object around is luring and there can 
neither be logic nor continuity of thought where there 
is so much to tempt into intellectual vagrancy. We 
return to Jehosaphat at the point of the junction be- 



514 

tween it and the Ktdron. On each side of tl:e hills 
which shut in the valley are graveyards ; the Moham- 
medans bury next the wall and the Jews on the oppo- 
site side, on the Mount of Olives. Every pious and 
impious Jew wants to lie here in this sacred spot. They 
have a traditional idea that the worthy who dies out of 
Palestine will, on the morning of the resurrection, bur- 
row through the earth like a fourteen year locust, and 
come up with a song in his mouth in the Valley of 
Jehosaphat. They pay great prices for a place where 
to lie on these rocks. It is a hard bed for the weary 
in life's conflicts, and there is not soil enough to cover 
them. Sometimes it is brought in baskets and heaped 
over the body, and then a great stone of a half ton's 
weight is rolled upon the grave. But the hyenas dig 
under the sides and strip the flesh from the bones. The 
wealthier Jews are now constructing more secure places 
and giving some little attention to adornment. 

On this side of the depression known as Kedron are 
tombs in the rocks ; one is called the Tomb of Zacha- 
riah, which was cut out of the solid rock, and is ab<. ut 
fifteen feet square and of the same height. The top is 
pyramidal in shape. The tomb was not only in the 
rock, but was cut out of it, and when it was finished there 
was an area of about five feet all round it. It has 
a Doric finish on the front; no entrance has been 
found into it. There are Roman tombs near it, which 
have no connection with Jerusalem except as the tombs 
of the oppressors of the people. There is, however, a 
beautiful shaft-like form, the top shaped like the neck 
of a bottle, quite tall and elaborate, Roman no doubt, 
which bears the name of the Tomb of Absalom. The 
modern Jews must believe it to be authentic because 
they bring their sons out and teach them to throw 



515 



stones at it, as an object lesson to beget in them the 
proper abhorrence of that disobedience which is a 
breach of the Fifth Commandment, and to impress on 
them the wickedness of disloyalty to their country. 

The brook K>dron, as it is called, has no water in 
it except daring the rainy season, beginning in Novem- 
ber, and now is only a wady of bleaching rocks. The 
mania for sacred places, amounting to insanity and 
rascality in both the Roman Catholic and Greek 
Churches, has here an illustration of their utter un- 
scrupulousness. The Romanists fenced in a spot many 
years before the Greek Church started in the busi- 
ness. As in the Garden of Gethsemane the olive 
trees have reached a considerable size, quite big 
enough to catch shallow fools and their money. 
The Greek Church started an opposition place and 
fenced it up tightly until the trees could be well grown. 
It is now in full blast and doing considerable business. 
To the soul that lives more by faith than by sight the 
whole thing is abominable. If the spot were a necessity 
in leading to devotion no man could say truthfully 
that either of them possess it, and yet so small is the 
space which this garden must once have occupied that 
one could throw a stone to the circumference of the 
place whereon our Lord Buffered. 

The Russians are evidently determined to have pos- 
session of this country, and are building superb churches 
all about Jerusalem. They have taken possession of 
Mount Olivet. Why does this continuous building go 
on, so far beyond any demands of the Greek Church? 
One of the half dozen churches which they already 
have would hold all their followers. But right here, 
overlooking Gethsemane, there is, nearly finished, one 
of the most unique and beautiful white marble churches, 



516 

in the Byzantine style, in all Europe. On the top of 
Mount Olivet is another not yet finished, a magnificent 
structure with an elaborate square tower of white mar- 
ble, which challenges the eye on every eide. It can be 
seen from the Mountains of Moab on the east, from 
Bethlehem on the south, from the Judean Mountains 
on the west, and from Mizpah on the north-west. A 
bell was landed at Jaffa for this tower so large 
that no contractor could be found to bring it to 
Jerusalem, though fi^e hundred pounds were offered. 
A company of pilgrims, about three hundred, landed at 
Jaffa from Russia, most of them being women, and seeing 
the sacred bell lying there, hopeless of reaching its desti- 
nation, they loaded it on wheels and the -somen, assisted 
by a few men, dragged it all the way to Jerusalem, 
a constant ascent of thirty eight miles, and up the steep 
side c\ Mount Olivet to its resting place. Soon an- 
other is to come in the same way for the temple at 
Gethsemane. 

The Roman Catholics have now a large establish- 
ment on the top of Mount Olivet, a church and schools, 
a monastery and a nunnery. Mount Olivet will soon 
be covered by the Greek and Roman churches, unless 
Prince Bismarck should want a place, and being ar- 
biter of Turkish destiny at present he is likely to get it. 
Both places claimed as the Mount of Ascension are 
already occupied. Jerusalem is fast changing, and after 
ten years will be seen only as a modern city, with a few 
interesting objects here and there inside of walls or 
fences. Mount Olivet is to us the most wonderful of 
all the mountain heights about Jerusalem, it commands 
a greater sweep of country, looking down in an appar- 
ent sense of superiority on Jerusalem itself. From its 
top the Mountains of Moab, across the Dead Sea, are 



517 

so near that one almost instinctively reaches his hand 
out to them. Nebo is distinctively marked as the head 
of the host created to witness the death or translation of 
Moses, to whom it was the enforced neplus uHra of his 
life's endeavors. 

Below, two thousand five hundred feet, glistening 
like an emerald, is seen the Dead Sea, and north, like 
a watery thread stretched across the plains to the Sea 
of Galilee, is the Jordan, quiet and peaceful, suggestive 
of the very opposite of our own familiar hymn : 

"On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, 
And cast a wistfal eye 
To Canaan's fair and happy land," &c. 

A very poor place for surveying Canaan, as there is 
no more of it visible than the Jordan Valley, very 
good, but not extensive, further view being cut off by 
desert mountains. Jericho could be seen from Mount 
Olivet, if there were any more Jericho with its nod- 
ding palms tossing their branches in the air ; but these 
are about all gone and the pilgrim must content him- 
self with the site on which these all once existed. 

Following the Mount Olivet range around north-west- 
wardly we come to the hill Scopus ; and of what tragic 
scenes it has been a spectator. On Moriah streams of 
sacrificial blood ran through centuries, but it was the 
blood of bulls and goats. But here the blood of the 
Divine Reconciler flowed, and because men would 
neither be reconciled to him or to each other it has 
been the field of blood always. Here has been the ap- 
proach of all besiegers of Jerusalem. From these 
heights the hosts of Nebuchadnezzar captured the city, 
carrying away the choicest of its sons and spoiling it 
of its treasures. For seventy years their captivity 
lasted, so sad that as we at this day read of it we are 



518 

touched by its matchless pathos. From this side the 
city opened its gates to the victorious Alexander ; and 
here Titus marshalled his legions and advanced his 
battering-rams for its final capture ; and in the later 
centuries it became the battle-grouud of the Saracens 
and Crusaders, of Saladin and Cceur de Lion. 

Coming down to the foot of thig range Damascus 
Gate is reached, the most historic of all the openings 
into Jerusalem, and having the best evidence of certain 
identity. We are here at a focal point of events and 
their localities, as written in the earlier and later scrip- 
tural history of the city. Near the gate is an opening 
which leads under the city, especially that north- 
western part known as Bezetha; beneath and extend- 
ing to the very site of the temple itself are quarries 
from which were taken the pure white stone of which 
the temple was built, compact and durable, yet so soft 
when lifted from its bed as to be easily worked. In 
this quarry are still to be seen the ancient marks in 
red, as distinct to day as when laid out by the workman's 
rule, and niches where the lamps were placed to light 
the laborer at his toil. The roofs of the quarry were 
supported by stone pillars, and each block taken out 
for the temple building wa3 prepared for its place in 
the structure before being moved from its bed, as is stated 
in the scriptural account. Blocks partly finished are 
still lying here and fragments of lamps are scattered 
about. After the awful siege of the city by Titus many 
took refuge in these labyrinths. Some of the stones of 
the ancient wall, coarser m quality, can be seen bearing 
the bevel marks of Phoenician workmanship and per- 
fectly fitted to each other, in striking contrast to the 
clumsy efforts of the Saracens. Some of these are of 
great size, the corner-stone at the south-east angle of 



519 

the temple area is estimated by Warren as weighing one 
hundred tons. 

Upon Mount Moriah probably stood the Temple of 
Solomon, upon the site now occupied by the Mosque 
of Omar. Within this mosque, under its lofty and 
beautiful dome, is a huge rock surrounded by a railing, 
left in its natural position; beneath it is a roughly 
excavated cave or chamber into which a stairway de- 
scends from the chamber of the church. Its floor when 
struck gives forth a hollow sound, as if there were 
other labyrinths below. This rock is regarded as 
sacred by the Moslems and probably was the place of 
the altar of sacrifice in Solomon's time, and upon it David 
is supposed to have offered sacrifice at the time of the 
plague (1 Chron. xxi and xxii). By this, taken as the 
place of the altar of sacrifice, the position of the temple 
and its courts may be approximated, and its area has 
been estimated at one thousand five hundred feet in 
length and one thousand feet in width, surrounded by 
stately colonnades, the whole resting upon subterranean 
arches still to be seen under the area, though many 
attribute them to the time of Herod. Beneath, also, 
are huge reservoirs capable of holding inexhaustible 
supplies of water. 

Near the Damascus Gate, on the northern side, the 
best living authorities have located the site of the Cruci- 
fixion, and of the sepulchre in which Christ's body wss 
laid. Robinson, after the most careful calculation, biased 
by no theories which would deflect his mind from the 
facts, placed it here, and it is worth saying that no deci- 
sion of his has ever been subverted. Captain Warren, of 
the British Corps of Engineers, Dr. Fisher Howe, Van 
de Velde, Thenius, and last, but with equal authority, 
the lamented General Gordon, who spent ten months in 



520 

the most careful, conscientious and painstaking efforts to 
decide the question, not only in the light of the ficts of 
science, but in the light of carefully interpreted Scrip- 
ture, and they all agree In this view. His measurements 
and notes were in the hands of our former Consul, Dr. 
Merrill, who also is convinced that this is the most sacred 
spot in associations with our Lord's death and resurrec- 
tion, as Golgatha, the place of Crucifixion, was un- 
doubtedly without the gate overlooking the city, and 
the new tomb in the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea 
was near or "in the place." 

"The Place of the Skull" was probably so called 
from its shape rather than its uses, and is to be seen 
outside the present north wall of the city. The caverns 
or tombs in its side near the top strikingly resemble 
eye-sockets. Jewish tradition also marks this as an ac- 
customed place of execution, and some believe that here 
also Stephen was stoned. At the foot of this hill are 
gardens-, in one of which is still to be seen a neglected 
tomb, low and consisting of a single chamber, with a 
marble slab, which was apparently at one time raised 
from the floor. Its entrance is half rilled with stone 
and debris, and the devotee, either Roman Catholic, 
Greek or Christian, attaches to it no sacred association, 
but it is considered by the best authorities, who have 
carefully studied it, as best fulfilling the conditions of 
Christ's burial place as described by the evangelists 

Jerusalem is situated upon a water-shed, which slopes 
toward the Dead Sea on the east and the Mediter- 
ranean on the west, two thousand five hundred and 
ninety feet above the sea level. Three hills rise suc- 
cessively—Mount Zion, Mount Moriah and the Mount 
of Olives — upon the first two was the site of the ancient 
city, through the centre of which runs the Tyropean Val- 



m 

5* \% ' 




521 

ley. Eastward tlie Valley of the Kedron separates the 
city from the Mount of Olives. It was admirably chosen 
by David as his capital, being surrounded by rocky 
ridges difficult to approach, and easily defended. It had 
also an ample water supply in case of siege in the springs 
beneath, and later on this was increased by the abundant 
flow from the pools of Solomon, which filled the pools 
and cisterns of the city. It was compactly built, in its 
most prosperous period probably occupying an area of 
not more than six hundred acres. Its present area is 
estimated at about two hundred acres and is surrounded 
by a wall, a portion of which can be identified as the 
original wall of David, and upon this the Turk has 
erected a sub-structure after his helter-skelter ideas of 
architecture, building bases of capitals and carvings 
into the face of the wall as before described. The 
gates are supposed to occupy the sites of the former 



Writing about Jerusalem is simply giving a descrip- 
tion of a great graveyard. There is nothing living to 
relieve the sad impression produced hj the skeletons 
of the dead empire — dead religion, dead social life, dead 
government, or government with all the good in it dead 
and buried, dead art, while even its history is dead and 
rolled up in the past like the swaddlings of a mummy. 
Its life is under our feet, the dust of its good and great 
is kicked up by asses hoofs. It exists to show what it 
is to be merely let alone by God ; God's wrath is never 
more terrible than in the words, "Let him alone"— 
" he is joined to his idols, let him alone." The Saviour 
did not stay to see the fig tree " die,' ' nor did he appoint 
it a day or hour or a funeral, but it died, and all the 
rest came in course. 



522 

In the days of King Uzziah an earthquake shook it 
and cleft its rocky foundations and rent its masonry, 
and twenty-five times it has been besieged by Baby- 
lonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Cru- 
saders, Saracens and Turks, reducing it to heaps, but 
none of these have produced such hopeless ruins as the 
words, " Behold, your city is left desolate." It is rain in 
dishonor. It is abomination, rearing one city of stys 
upon another over the ancient city entombed under 
seventy-five feet of the very dung of centuries. No- 
body has carried away in nineteen centuries even a 
basket full of waste or garbage, the people are as wed- 
ded to their filth as if it were their most sacred deity. 
It is said that there are eight Jerusalems lying one on 
top of the other, the city of the Jebusites, of Solomon, 
of Nehemiah, of Herod, destroyed by Titus in 70. In 
the year 130 the Emperor Hadrian began to rebuild 
it, and it continued under the Roman dominion until 
the Mohammedan conquest. Then came the city of 
the Crusaders, then the later city of the Moslems, de- 
filing all that preceded it. Many feet below the present 
Via Dolorosa are Roman pavements, over which 
was heard the tramp of victorious legions, probably on 
the very day of our Lord's Crucifixion, and now, when 
to the amazement of the world the Turkish govern- 
ment is making a sewer, they are striking Roman pave- 
ments, on the line of the present streets, so perfectly 
fitted and laid in cement that It is almost impossible to 
break them. Yet in the degradations of Jerusalem 
the mind is kept from disgust, every grain of dust has 
a history and a halo when it is dragged to the light. 

Jerusalem cannot be hid, it was built to be seen, its 
site chosen where its glory and shame would best ap- 
pear. We have looked upon it, walking about it and 



523 

on its walls, and from its gates and its mountain tops. 
From within no part baffles the eye at any angle, 
not even does its narrow walled street hide it from view 
or confuse one as to its situation. The pilgrim from the 
Mediterranean enters the Jaffa Gate by the Tower of 
David with its genuine marks of antiquity. The only 
hotel at all comfortable is at this gate, the Mediter- 
ranean. A3 one goes along the gallery of the upper 
court of this hotel he is surprised to see a body of water 
closely built in by houses whose rear walls open out upon 
it. This is a reservoir about two hundred feet long by 
one hundred wide and a depth of from thirty to forty feet 
—the Pool of Hezekiah- still doing duty s . long after 
the mind that conceived and the will that executed it 
have gone out of the world. Such works lay the hand 
of the present into the past, and one is compelled to 
feel that all time in such works has the impress upon it 
of the " eternal now." 

Within a stone's throw is the vast inclosed ruin be- 
longing now to the Knights of Saint John, as it did in 
the time of the Crusaders to the men then bearing the 
honorable name. The return of this to the order in 
the person of the Crown Prince of Prussia will be de- 
scribed in the mission work of Jerusalem. Almost in 
a line, a little to the east, is the plateau on which 
stands the so-called Mosque of Gmar, a wonder of its 
kind, unique, imposing and of exquisite beauty in its 
parts. It i3 an octagonal structure covered with en- 
caustic tiles with ingenious designs which glisten in 
mellowed tints in the sun, and at eventime there is 
a flame of sunlit glory blazing from its polished roof. 
Within it is grander, for it is more varied in its ele- 
ments of beauties, its windows are gems of the highest 
products of the art: on the outside of the windows are 



524 

marble screens or coverings cut into varied shapes of 
exquisite design, which are seen from within. The 
columns taken from the temple support and grace the 
structure of the finest marble, granites and malechite, 
the capitals of which are covered with gold. The 
pavements are of the finest mosaic, inlaid in varied 
figures ; altogether, though smaller, it is to us superior 
to the famous Mosque of Saint Sophia at Stamboul. 

Almost over against us is the Church of the Holy Sep- 
ulchre, which the Latins and the Greeks hold in quar- 
relsome brotherhood, and the worst of all is that both are 
quarrelling over a sham. We could but think of the 
Lord's own words, "Why seek ye the living among the 
dead?" Christ is not here, never was and never will 
be until the unholy, God- dishonoring strife ends. 

We now turn to the only evidence which could be 
gained in our limited time of the religious condition of 
Jerusalem and of any progress in mission work being 
made there. This work is under the care of the Lon- 
don Society for the Promotion of Christianity Among 
the Jews, which has been in active existence since 
1840. It has through these years had its ups and 
downs, and in all a more than usual share of local mis- 
management with attendant hindrances. But withal 
it has done in its difficult field a good work and is 
slowly gaining. 

This is, in many respects, the most difficult field in the 
Levant. The populations of Jerusalem are, like all 
cities, injured by their city environments. There are in 
Jerusalem boys' and girls' school ; in the former there are 
forty-two boarders and twenty day scholars. The girls' 
school has thirty-two boarders and forty day scholars. 
There is an Inquirer's Home where young Jews are re- 
ceived on probation for three months, and if found 



525 

sincere and worthy are taken into another institution, 
the " House of Industry," where they are taught ar.d 
practised in carpentering, turning, printing snd bind- 
ing books, shoemaking and tailoring. There is a 
church connected with this work with a Jewish fol- 
lowing of two hundred and fifty and a communion roll 
of twenty-five a week, the sacrament being adminis- 
tered weekly, with a yearly average of one hundred 
and ten present. There are two services each day 
consisting of prayers, &c, in Hebrew and an address 
in German. There is also an English service and 
Bible reading. The English language is taught ia all 
the schools. There is a hospital of twenty beds, and 
a dispensary from which twelve thousand prescrip- 
tions were filled in the last quarter. This same 
Society has a school in Damascus, a book shop and 
lady missionaries, but is not gaining in its work. 
There is also a station in Saphet and a missionary, a 
physician and a clergyman, school mistress and drug- 
gist. The clergyman was formerly a most bigoted Jl w 
and is one of the fruits of the mission work. 

In Jaffa is a depot and lay missionary of the British 
brethren, also the Jewish Refugee Aid Society, whic'i 
is working mostly among the Russian and Roumanian 
refugees. They have twelve thousand acres of land at 
Artouf. Ten colonists are on the ground. The land 
is sold to them at the rate of one pound a year for 
twenty years. They are also helped in the beginning 
until they can provide for themselves. The property 
of the London Missionary Society for the Promotion 
of Christianity Among the Jews is estimated at the 
value of thirty-five thousand pounds. 

But the English have another agency at work in 
this field. In Jerusalem the Church Missionary 



523 

Society has a church, school and preparatory establish- 
ment for teachers, a girls' school, two European cler- 
gymen and two native teachers or preachers, and also 
a boys' school. There are schools in Nablous, a book 
depot and out stations. In Nazareth is a church with 
two clergymen and schools, and in the boys' school are 
one hundred and forty-five pupils. There are also 
cliurch stations in Haifa and Akka on the Mediter- 
ranean. There are prosperous missions across the Jor- 
dan at EsSalt or Ramoth Gilead and at Haaran 
among the Druses. 

We have given enough to form an estimate of the 
work done by the English Church ; there are others 
whose progress deserves as favorable mention. The 
Prussian colonists have flourishing schools, and though 
not engaged in direct missionary work are doing it all 
the same in their upright lives and honest business re- 
lations with the natives and by their superior schools, 
in which Christian duties are put forward and pure 
living is commended by teachings and example. They 
are doing a work that no others can, fjr they preach 
Christ in business life and how to live peaceably with 
all. They are Lutherans by birth and baptism, but 
have Adventist ideas and came under this impulse. 
They are changing barren places into fruitfulness, 
teaching the natives what a home is and what Christian 
home life ought to be. They have a hospital, a good 
physician and those blessed women, the deaconesses, in 
charge of it, and with a country at their back ready 
to furnish the means no people have so fair prospects 
of planting themselves and their faith in Jerusalem 
and throughout Palestine. In the hospital work they 
are backed here, as in Beirut, by the venerable, influen- 
tial order known as the "Knights of Saint John." 



527 



They have just had a signal advantage) in the return, 
by the Sultan, of the old site of the Church of Saint 
John, built in the eleventh or twelfth century. 

The Crown Prince of Prussia a short time since waa 
in Jerusalem and received it back in behalf of the 
order, for, as we remember, this ruined structure was 
originally built by this order, and through all the ages of 
Mohammedan rule they have been deprived of it. The 
Crown Prince had received it by authority of the Sul- 
tan, but the Governor of Jerusalem, who was to deliver 
it in the name of the Sultan, was, as usual among the 
Turks, behind time. Turkish affairs being uncertain 
the Prince mounted the ruins determined not to risk, 
as it is said, a prize so great and nailed the flag pole 
to the ruins with his own hands, and hoisted the Prus- 
sian flag upon it, which has waved over it every day 
since, showing that Prussia possesses and protects that 
spot forevermore. The carpentering of the Crown 
Prince will not be so surprising when our readers know 
that every heir to the throne of Prussia must learn a 
trade. The Kaiser is a stone-mason and the Crown 
Prince is a cabinet-maker, and a chair is sbown in the 
Palace of Babelsberg, Potsdam, made by him. 

This most interesting ruin, thus restored to its right- 
ful owners, on every stone of which the history of at 
least eight centuries is written, is being uncovered. Ten 
feet below the present level are the remnants of the 
beautiful mosaics which made its floors. Under these 
are cisterns in which the water still stands, and as a 
stone is dropped into them they echo and reecho as if 
fifty feet deep. Parts of the wall are still, standing 
with the ancient columns and capitals and parts of 
groined ceilings. The ruin 13 to be restored for a hos- 
pital, and now that after the centuries of ruin it should 



528 

come back into the hands of the successors of those 
who built it, and be devoted to the elevation of 
ignorant humanity and to the healing of its wounds 
and sicknesses, is another of the miracles Providence is 
ever working. The money, we understand, is in hand 
to build this hospital and school building, which is even 
now in process of restoration in its old architectural 
form and proportions. 



LAST NIGHT IN JERUSALEM. 

LIFE is full of last times and final events. Funerals 
are made of them, despairs are born in them, 
lost loves are cherished through them ; they are a com- 
mon inheritance, and to us came a large legacy the last 
night of our stay in Jerusalem. It was evening, the 
sun was dipping in the west, the moon was on hand in 
good time and in her usual proportions, scattering her 
beams widely. Her shadows were lying across Mount 
Olivet at one point, while its bald head was tipped 
wi.h her glory at another. Her beams were dancing 
wildly on the great niofque dome and giving spectral 
whiteness to the needle like minarets all about. The 
winds were moaning because it was so hot they could 
not stand it, for the desert had been blistering them 
all across its sands. Sleeping nature took their key- 
note and groaned, brayed and howled. A thousand 
asses, just come up out of the country to the city, un- 
comfortable under its restraints, started a defiant con- 
cert in a . style all their own. This music became con- 
tagious, it went all along the lines; so from every part 
of the city could be heard not only echoes, but repro- 
ductions and their echoes. The lethargic camels 



£29. 

caught the inspiration and sent out into the air their 
contribution. The several dog colonies joined, for 
here the dog is free, he belongs only to himself and can 
use his capacities as he pleases. One colony began 
with a howl, pitching the first notes on the moun- 
tain tops. Then the barking became general, loud and 
decisive, with a pause for the other colonies to join 
in, which was ever responded to with enthusiasm. 
When there was a moment's silence and some pup 
started up, the whole population would break in, 
joined again by the asses and camels, and the battle 
among the harmonies raged with unwonted vigor all 
through the night, interspersed with fights and yelps 
of the wounded and the moan of the vanquished. To 
this was added anon the curses of the Bedouin for 
order, now fierce, now tender — " let us have peace." 

But within raged conflicts as fierce as those without. 
The fleas had hidden themselves during the day for the 
last encounter. They live in the finest rugs, perch 
on cushions and conduct the weary to his couch. 
Scarcely is the head laid down before the first part of 
the programme begins, which is hopping from spot to 
spot over the person. When the hand is lifted to smite 
the intruder suddenly it drops to scratching some- 
wnere else; thii hopping and skipping process beg- 
gared description, then the biting begins, and as the 
conflict deepens the more skilfully are applied the in- 
struments of torture. 

But these are not alone in their assaults. The sand- 
flies bring up their reinforcements. These are imper- 
ceptible until filled with blood. They can easily fold 
themselves up until there is no difficulty in coming 
through the mosquito bars, but when in they become 
too big to get out. Other foes flock in while the music 



530 

goes on without. The mosquitoes from the Pool of Heze- 
kiah, zealous ami persistent, ancient blood-letters, com- 
ing down from the days of Barachia, who was slain be- 
tween the porch and the altar. They lie on the pool in 
the day and upon the Gentiles at night. The lights are 
lit to catch the fleas, but this is the signal for an on- 
slaught from the mosquitoes. The windows are shut 
down to keep out the mosquitoes, but this encloses the 
sand flies; then they are lifted to get breath from the 
stifling heat, and the assault at once begins; and so 
the music goes on without and the battles rage within, 
until in despair we cry with the Israelites, "Would 
that it were morning." When the day dawned we 
were leconciled to depart —indeed, we had a desire to 
depart, and so we did, and with a determination not 
to slip on it as did Lot's wife. We never looked back. 
Between Jerusalem and Jaffa thare is nothing of 
special interest except in a cove on the side of the 
mountains as they break down toward the sea, where 
was the battle-field of Bethhoron. But when the Plain 
of Sharon is reached one is not surprised that it was 
the theme of poets and kindled the enthusiasm of 
beauty lovers. It is twelve or fifteen miles wide, reach- 
ing from Gaza on the south, almost to Carmel on the 
north. Its soil is of the richest red clay, impregnated 
with lime stone and equal in fertility to the Delta of 
the Nile. It only needs men who know how to apply 
labor to the soil. If but tickled with the hoe it returns 
smiling abundance. It ought to be covered with the 
stately palms, the most fruitful and graceful tree in the 
world. It would furnish olives for all nations, grapes, 
oranges, figs and lemons, pomegranates, wheat of the 
highest quality and weight, Indian corn, and indeed 
every form of product temperate and tropical. This 



l'1'll , iflll ill' 

I 



1' il! ; i 



1 ^liili 1 






531 

valley alone would feed one hundred thousand people. 
Even now when only specks upon its great surface are 
occupied oranges in every color, in process of ripening, 
bend the branches of the trees to the ground. 

Jaffa has improved and is improving. . Soon the old, 
filthy, narrow streets will be gone and a modern 
European city of great beauty and picturesqneness will 
take its place. The German colony is occupying the 
grounds and prospering, of the defunct American 
colony, which had a villain for their leader, and being 
unacclimated and unthrifty were reduced to starvation 
the remnant of them were carried away by the charity 
of some benefactor, we believe, in New York city. A 
second visit was made to the house of Simon the Tan- 
ner. It does not improve with age, and the odor of 
Simon's profession, or worse, still abides. How Peter 
could go to sleep without holding his nose is the un- 
solved riddle of Palestine. It was a hot place at the 
hour of his dream, and as all manner of beasts, clean 
and unclean, appeared, the odors would surely wake 
him up, but we are comforted in the fact that the crea- 
tions of the dream have lasting realities. 

We gave the rest of our time to the mission work in the 
town, and found first the school building of Miss Arnott, 
which is at least one of the seven wonders of Palestine. 
She is the daughter of Professor Arnott, of Edinburgh 
University, and is of that godly line of ancestors in old 
Scotland where the blood is purified by grace rather than 
breeding. She came to the East on a visit, and while 
in it took the place of an absent teacher and became 
interested in the destitutions of this wretched people. 
She conceived the idea of reaching the degradations 
of the home, and applying moral leverage where alone 
true elevation begins. She began all alone, relying on 



532 

her own moral, intellectual and moneyed resources. 
A piece of ground was obtained on moderate terms and 
a school begun in a small way, but faith being anchored 
to the material in a fixed location faith enlarged and 
with it resources. She gathered such poor girls as she ' 
could persuade to come, and taught them. Her curri- 
culum included two great subjects, to wit, how to live 
and how to die. God's blessing attended her efforts ; 
God's Spirit directed until she had a building and as 
many scholars as she was able to manage. 

This school is a wonderful comment on the words, 
"To him tbat hath shall be given and he shall have 
abundance." She had no proffered help; her work 
was looked upon by the wise and prudent as visionary, 
something that it would be well to " stand from under," 
but when it was a success then there was" abundant 
help, and proffered management too. But Miss Arnott 
kept her own work under her own control until its suc- 
cess was assured, and then, being warned by sickness 
of the frailly of a life not very vigorous, she provided 
against the scattering of her life-work and its possibili- 
ties by calling around her trusted ones able and will- 
ing to carry it on after her own efforts had ceased. 
She has one of the finest school properties in the 
Levant, and all the gatherings of her own indomitable 
spirit, for she had but little of her own to begin with. 
This she started in faith in the great Promiser, on 
whom she has drawn many checks when in need, and 
who has always honored her drafts. 

We had a delightful interview with this remarkable 
woman, and learned in it more than we had known of 
the victories of an unquestioning and all-trusting faith. 
Miss Arnott' s property is worth from fifty to seventy- 
five thousand dollars. She has been in the field about 



533 

twenty four years and has had wonderful tokens of 
Divine favor on her work. She has wrought for both 
the souls and minds of her pupils, and God has raised 
some of them to a higher school and honored her in 
hearing the call, "Come up higher and behold my 
glory." 

The story of one of these has in it the deepest pathos 
and has touched our heart, and we know will have a 
like response from our readers. In March, 1863, Miss 
Arnott gathered around her her first band of little 
girls, fourteen in number, and from these began her 
wonderful mission work in Jaffa. Hunneh Wakeely 
was the oldest of the group, about thirteen years old, 
and was mainly instrumental in bringing in the rest. 
She was uncommonly bright and became afterwards a 
teacher, but her work was soon done, she wa3 a frail 
reed and was not only shaken but broken by the wind. 
At eighteen her work was finished, life began to wither 
down to its roots. She had been a sensible, impressible 
child and ripened soon under the genial culture of her 
teacher's instruction and example. She wanted to be 
always with her teacher, as if moved by an instinct 
that life was short and she must be prepared for the 
end by the only one who could lead her. She would 
often say to her teacher, " I wish I knew Jesus as you 
do." Her teacher was ill and many feared that she 
would never recover, but Hunneh's care of her was 
affectionate and unremitting. She kept up the school 
all alone that, as she said, her teacher might be content 
to be laid aside. The teacher was as much concerned 
about the pupil. "I dreaded," said she, "to leave her 
alone in an evil world ; I prayed the Lord that I might 
be spared to tend that frail plant and see her safe home 
first, little knowing how soon and strangely my prayer 
was to be answered." 



534 

Her life was drawn heavenward as a flower to the 
sun, and heaven was giving her more wondrous beauty. 
She studied the New Testament with saintly fondness, 
she saw plainly the heathenism of tbe Church which 
had only the Christian name clinging to it as a ray of its 
former glory, and greatly desired to unite with the 
Protestant Church. She fought death until she knew 
God's will concerning her, and then she gave her life 
away in the expectation of a better. She would wake 
in the night and read precious promises from her Testa- 
ment, and when there was no voice left to her would re- 
peat, "My faith looks up to thee," which is a great 
favorite with the natives as rendered in the Arabic. 
When nearly gone she struggled to speak, and when her 
teacher bent down to catch the parting word it was 
"water." Not understanding water waa ordered for 
her, but when her mother brought it she said, " No ; 
the water of life." She had no raptures, but rather 
the quiet resting on him who had promised. Her ex- 
perience was that of the weary soul longing and 
panting for rest. The last day came when the first 
fruits of this school were to be lifted to heaven. It was 
on Saturday and the hot sirocco wind wasted her 
strength, but in the afternoon she revived, and her 
teacher read about the vine and its branches, and said, 
" Who are the branches ?" She quickly replied, " I 
am one." "Then," said the teacher, "why has the 
Lord sent you all this suffering?" "For my soul's 
sake," she replied. 

In the gray mists of the Sabbath morning she re- 
quested her mother to take her in ber arms, and there 
alone with her mother and her poor blind father, who 
groped his way to her bed, not to see. but feel his child 
before the light of life to them all should go out of the 



535 

household, she laid his hand on her forehead and 
kissed it, and said, "Father, I am going where there 
shall be no pain, and where, dear father, the blind 
shall see." He stood there, the tears flowing from those 
sightless eye-balls. She struggled once more in her 
mother's arms, saying, " O, mother, I am dying. Jesus 
help me," and her spirit had found its rest, Hunneh, 
the first missionary, who had gathered the first fourteen 
into Miss Arnott's school and had been her most help- 
ful teacher, was gone. Her memory has been as help- 
ful as her presence. The good never leave us, they only 
change form from body to memory, and thus reem- 
bodied are clothed upon by the good they have done. 



NIGH UNTO JAFFA. 

HALF mile beyond the school presided over by 
Miss Arnott, on a bluff overlooking the sea, where 
the intense heat is broken by refreshing breezes, is one 
of the blessed works wrought by the Mildmay Mission 
in London, where promises are now budding, fostered by 
this institution. This is a hospital building having abun- 
dant and wise provisions for the suffering, It is a monu- 
ment to the lives of those who conceived and executed 
the purpose, and will be to those who are so efficiently 
carrying it on. The grounds are admirably chosen, no 
such spot, considering the purpose, could have been 
found on the coast. The building is of a kind of straw- 
colored sand-stone, resembling that of which the Syrian 
College at Beirut is built. It is large and imposing 
and commands the eye far out upon the sea. In its 
appointments it is as near perfect as the science and 
experience of our times could make it. Of the tribula- 



536 

tious incident to its present consummation we wish we 
had more time and space to write. But some insight 
can be given into the origin and struggles through which 
the work has come into its present form. Such work 
is never an experiment; in the heart of heathenism 
success is assured when the purpose is solemnly formed 
and the divine order is followed, in the heart of which 
the blessing always palpitates. 

Healing and teaching are divine forces to the better- 
ment of both souls and bodies, and need only to be tried 
to bring success. They are the John Baptists crying 
in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." 
Even the Moslems, the most hostile, will come to the 
dispensary of the institution and listen reverently to 
the offers of salvation through the blood of the Lamb. 
This work, also, was undertaken in a noble woman' s heroic 
faith, and when the first quarters became crowded ard 
utterly unfit in their dilapidation this woman, Miss 
Mangan, borrowed from her own modest purse the 
money necessary to secure a suitable plot of ground on 
which to build a hospital tj> hold fifty patients. Money 
was given in large and small sums until these sister3 
thought they could begin. One gift was two shillings 
and nine pence saved in farthings by a mother in one 
of the Mildmay Missions, and ten shillings and sis 
pence from a servant who gave up sugar to help the 
work. With such sacrificial spirit no good work can 
ever fail. 

These deaconesses had the Turk to deal with, a 
worse foe than the wretched people whose bodies and 
souls they were trying to help. They had received per- 
mission to build from the local authorities, which was 
thought sufficient. Building was begun and was progress- 
ing when, as usual, it was stopped by the Turkish gov- 



537 



ernment. An Imperial firman was needed ; every thing 
received a rude shock, material was spoiling, patients 
suffering, and the patience of God and man was being 
exhausted. Miss Mangan went to Constantinople, and 
through the intervention of friends obtained an inter- 
view, and the papers were prepared with despatch and 
only waited for the signature of the Sultan. But to 
hasten the work she went again to Constantinople, hop- 
ing with God's blessing to return with the firman, and 
this journey ended her plans and works. The strain 
was too much and she gave up her life. It had been a 
living sacrifice and now was crowned with martyrdom. 
A sigh escapes from the human half of life that she 
should die just as her work, so hard, so wearying, was 
about to be completed. But God has compensations. 
Moses died on the border and in sight of the goal of 
his life-struggles. He begged piteously to go over, but 
God said, "No;" but God " is not slack concerning his 
promise." The day came on the Mount of Transfigura- 
tion when the divine promise was fulfilled and Moses 
was in the promised land. Other hands took up the 
mantle of this heroic woman and smote their way through 
all obstacles until on October 19th, 1886, the building 
was completed and dedicated. So we have another illus. 
tration of the fact that life out of death is the law of 
all moral progress. The following statements will give 
some idea of the work : 

"The Medical Mission is carried on five days in 
every week, the patients often beginning to gather 
round the gate as early as 6 A. M. in their eagerness 
for the 9 o'clock opening. The total number of attend- 
ances from November 1st, 1885, to December 31st, 
1886, was 11,176. During the same period, notwith- 
standing all the trials and hindrances of the work, 231 



538 

patients have been nursed in the hospital, of whom 12 
have died, 7 being admitted in a hopeless condition. 
Of these inpatients 8 were Jews, 10 Maronites, 3 
Latins, 6 Protestants, 19 Greeks, 1 Armenian, 1 Copt, 
and 183 Moslems. The increased accommodation of the 
new hospital has admitted of a ward being set apart 
for women, already occupied by five patients; and on 
this branch of the work we hope for much blessing. 

"The Word of God is read and explained in the 
wards in Arabic each evening, accompanied with 
prayer, offered in the name of the one blessed Saviour, 
and deep indeed is the interest of this little service. 
Such of the patients as are able to rise generally gather 
round the lady, sitting on the nearer beds, or squatting, 
Eastern fashion, at her feet. Others sit up in bed, 
each wrapped in his blanket, their dark eyes fixed in- 
tently on the reader, as if they would drink in every 
word; and the reverent stillness during prayer is a 
continued source of thankfulness. It is touching, too, 
to hear the benedictions that follow the ladies as they 
leave the wards after this evening prayer, ' Maaseala- 
mee' (My peace go with you), passing from lip to lip, 
often in tones of real earnestness and gratitude. 

" We have no space to dwell on individual cases, 
but one or two other points of interest in the general 
work demand a few words of notice. 

" The Sunday-school is carried on with still increas- 
ing numbers, and it is an ever-recurring source of 
amazement and thankfulness that the authorities place 
no difficulty in our way, for nearly every week there 
are above 120 scholars, comprising both children and 
young women — the great majority being Moslems are 
forbidden by their religion to receive any Christian 
teaching, but who come readily for this purpose. A 



539 

mothers' meeting is held every Friday. Forty gath- 
ered around their friend, Miss , to hear the old, 

old story, to them ever new." 

Having finished our mission to Syria and Palestine 
there is nothing left but to set face again to the ocean. 
But this is not so easily done. The vessels in the 
Mediterranean never come into port --there are no ports 
to come into, so they anchor out in the ocean, and pas- 
sengers have to be brought to shore by a lot of as 
graceless scamps as were ever born. The coast here is 
exceedingly rocky and dangerous, and when the sea is 
rough the traveller is brought over the surging billows 
in row-boats. When passing through the breakers be- 
tween the rocks the Arabs sing a prayer to Allah for a 
safe passage, but when we have passed these the disagree- 
able tug begins. The pilgrim must disembark and 
be carried by two boatmen, who wade out with their 
load, the legs thereof dangling, their owner struggling to 
hold them out of the water. While thug staggering, the 
victim not knowing that the horse and his rider will 
not both be cast into the sea, the boatman is saying, 
"Backshesh." As one cannot reach one's pockets 
he knows not how soon he may be dumped into 
the crested billow. It is by a strange law of asso- 
ciation in some minds that in danger the ridiculous 
side of things will turn up, and we could not but think 
of the story of the old negro contraband woman who 
had escaped through the lines and reached Boston. 
She was fat, but pious, and when Sunday came she 
seated herself, according to Southern custom, near the 
pulpit. When the sermon was a little exciting she 
thought she would help by saying, " Thank the Lord. 
Dat's so, bress do Lord." The preacher could not 
stand the interruption and called on two of the deacons 



640 

to take her out. She would not walk and they pro- 
ceeded to carry her, when she broke out again, " Bress 
de Lord. I's better off than the Prophet Hezekiah, 
who rode round Jerusalem on one ass, and I's riden 
out of di3 earthly Jerusalem on two." 



TEE MISSION WORK IN SYRIA. 

"E must pause as we leave Syria and Palestine 
to glance over the field. The value and re- 
sults of the mission work in Syria ought to be esti- 
mated from the period since the massacre in 1860, 
when a single row boat brought back the remnant. 
What is the outcome from a general survey oi the situa- 
tion as it appears to-day ? The first thing apparent is 
that Beirut ha3 been modernized, almost Americanized, 
by the presence and labors of the missionaries. Their 
sentiments ramify society through and through. The 
Mohammedan is modified both in his ignorance and his 
fanaticism. He is buying and reading the Scriptures. 
The Druses, the most desperate class, are becoming 
more accessible every year. The natives of the Greek 
Church, the Maronites and the Romanists are patroniz- 
ing our schools and entering our churches. The edu- 
cational spirit of the whole district is becoming en- 
larged and they never think of any educators except 
the American missionaries. 

Our Medical College has trained a large number of 
physicians, going forth with American ideas of the 
treatment of diseases. The Department of Surgery 
has made wonderful progress, so that the people believe 
that there is nothing in the form of disease and disaster 
beyond the skill of the American physician. The 



541 

Obstetrical Department of our College alone is a mercy 
to the native women which cannot be estimated in 
words. The successful treatment of diseases of the 
skin, so prevalent that they may be called the curse 
of the Levant, has given untold relief. The treatment 
of the eyes has been not less successful. Opthalmia ia 
a chronic infliction, which begins often like catarrh, 
and for want of cleanliness brings not only blindness, 
but a diseased condition of the ball, enlarging it until 
it has to be cut out. In the neighborhood of Tri- 
poli it is quite exceptional to find people with both 
eyes in good condition. In the beginning this disease 
would be manageable if they would wash their eyes, 
but this they will not do if they can help it, and the 
flies gather around them in black rings and carry 
poison from diseased to healthy eyes. 

The service of the surgeon in cases of scrofula is in- 
calculable. This is a terrible form of physical deterior- 
ation. American surgeons do not hesitate in extreme 
cases to remove the swollen glands. The people here 
have no physical stamina, nor recuperative power, and 
do not hope to overcome disease by increasing strength. 
They live upon low diet and irregularly, most of them 
having little else to eat than coarse black and sour 
bread and figs or grapes, or other fruits of the country, 
dried or green. They have also to carry burdens that 
would stsgger a donkey. 

All these sources of misery have been mitigated by 
the example of Christian people in the regularity of 
their living and in their cleanliness of person and home. 
Family life has been exhibited before them until the 
lowest are at least feebly imitating the position of the 
wives and daughters of the missionaries, who have 
given new ideas of the sanctity of the family relations. 



542' 

Their dress has changed, and in every particular the 
change is conforming to the missionary ideals. The 
leaven has reached the whole mass, and if it is doing 
no more it is fermenting toward a better state at the 
edges. 

The position of our Colleges at Beirut has become 
one of national importance. Students come and go 
from all parts of the East and out of almost every form 
of religion, and are reaching further "West into Europe. 
It is fast becoming a recognized fact that Beirut can 
furnish scholars in all the Oriental languages. Bei- 
rut is the place to study Arabic. Here only can be 
found the best Arabic scholars from the class of Eng- 
lish-speaking people, and here the ear is daily subsi- 
dized, so that reading, writing and speaking are alike 
accessible. The time is fast coming when British and 
Americans wishing to acquire this language will come 
here, where living is cheap and the best of social life 
can be enjoyed. 

But this is only a fraction of the work done. The 
Publishing Department has reached its hundreds of 
thousands of readers, directly and indirectly, and is 
bound to reach a wider circle, not only by the thirst 
it has created for reading, but from the necessities of 
commerce and of the interchange of thought going on 
continually in the world. There is no establishment 
in the East which has so many different kinds of books, 
endorsed books, with the imprimatur of the Turkish 
Empire upon them, nor has any the facilities of pro- 
ducing them at prices so cheap and in workmanship so 
attractive and good. 

Beirut will become more and more important to the 
por/er succeeding this one, for the Turk is long in dy- 
ing, but he will die, as most do, for want of breath. 



543 

The wolves will follow the buffalo, knowing that his 
strength is failing sooner than he does himself — they 
will take the scent of his declining life before the car- 
cass decays in death. There are such powers now 
scenting the dying Turk. France began the death- 
watch and preparations for the funeral under Napo- 
leon III. She strengthened her old hold and started 
new agencies, and is planting and sustaining additional 
ones. The Jesuits, driven out from France by the 
Republic, are sustained at government expense here, so 
that when the Turkish funeral comes she may take 
part in the wake. 

Germany is more active in another direction, and 
in the use of other means. She is colonizing, and 
her people are changing the whole face of this 
desolate country. If they could buy this land they 
would not be long about it. Haifa, a barren 
coast with dreary surroundings, has been changed into 
an exceedingly prosperous and fruitful country, and 
the German, who always buys and never sells, is crowd- 
ing on the natives. At Jaffa there is another colony, 
in Jerusalem another, transforming the rocky, barren 
hill tops at the south of the city into gardens filled with 
the choicest fruits and grains. And so they will come 
by consent or bribery, by which all things here are 
done, until Bismarck will be heard in the councils of 
the nations, saying, " Germany has her people there, 
and they must and will be protected by all, or we will 
take a heavy slice out of the grand divide." 

Russia is wide awake for the demise, and will pro- 
bably bring it about. She is changing Jerusalem into 
a modern city, has built a grand Hospice on the south- 
west side and over the top of the Mount of Olives. 
The domes of her churches gleam in the morning and 



544 

evening sunshine. The priests throng the streets with 
plenty of money ; her schools are on all sides ; her houses 
for her consulates are superb. She has come to stay — 
her Emperor aspires to be the head of the Church in 
the Holy Land, and she has Turkey so entirely under 
her direction that she dares not refuse to yield to her 
the best sites about Jerusalem for whatever it is her 
will to put upon them. 

Italy, through the Romish Church, has been here 
through the centuries, and is strengthening herself, so 
there will be a boiling sea here one of these days. 
England will be in it from Cyprus and Egypt, and 
the Holy City will become Jerusalem of the Gentiles, 
or rather Jerusalem of the whole spiritual Israel of 
God. Syria is, in more elements than men have 
grouped or appreciated, the country which in situa- 
tion, products and physical conformation is best suited 
as the home of the chosen people of God, if they should 
ever rise to the time and inspiration of a deliverance. 
A realm dominated by spiritual life would be a grand 
realization of past ideals. We cannot think that this 
land shall always bleach as a skeleton in the valley 
of dry bones. Shall not the prophet's vision be realized 
when bone shall come to bone and joint and socket fit 
each other in fulfilment of God's purpose, and life 
comes by the breath of the four winds ? Are they not 
blowing on it now ? Is not the Spirit of God coming 
from all the points of the world's progress to give it 
life? It must live; its Master gave the simile of its 
future life when he said of the corn of wheat that 
it must die ere it lives. So this decay must spring into 
renewed life. 

We cannot survey the ruins of Palestine long and 
believe that it is only a cemetery over which the voice 



545 

of resurrection will never be heard. We cannot be- 
lieve that it belongs only to the buried past. This can- 
not be so long as the Bible lives ; it must have the possi- 
bilities not only of individual but of national life. The 
Jews will not bring this life, for, as a class, they are as 
blind as the day they said, "Away with him," but in- 
dividual Jews, federal heads, will join with the spiritual 
Israel, and to them the gathering of the people shall be. 
The same impulse that led Abraham into his wander- 
ings for its sake, and the Crusaders to end their lives in 
it for its sake, will reappear. The law of periodicity 
will bring about in another form the same impulse, but 
guided by the Divine Spirit. 

The Gentiles have trodden it down, but they have 
blindly obeyed the divine purpose. They may, per- 
haps, as blindly work out divine purpose in wars and 
bloodshed, in the national ambitions and cupidity 
by which it shall live again. The Gentiles, who have 
spoiled and dishonored its fair face and covered 
with the filth of ages its sacred places and oppressed 
it as no other spot on the face of the earth, are 
themselves changing, for the Mohammedans are in 
despair and trembling with uncertainty about their 
existence in the East. They are asking, " Is Moham- 
med our only prophet, or do we look for another — a 
greater?" They are searching the Scriptures with an 
intensity of restlessness and desire never known. They 
are nearer the kingdom of Christ to-day than his own 
people. So that it looks as if the destroyers are ready 
to join in its spiritual upbuilding. The Mohammedans 
of the East distrust the Turkish government and 
charge the Turks with being the authors of their down- 
fall, and it would not be hard to rend the brittle thread 
of their loyalty, and then the prophetic monster would 



546 

fall into its grave, hated by its own, cursed every day 
of its existence by Turks for its oppressions, and dis- 
trusted by the people who have been the victims of this 
Moloch, under the name of religion. 

The duty of Christians lies in the form of sacrifice 
and its accompanying labors. They must send more 
laborers into the field, work more for Christ than for 
the organizations bearing his name, present an united 
heart and front to this people cursed by their own dis- 
sensions. Cast the net on the right side, which is the 
united side, and let it not drop in order to sort the 
fishes into the several bushels. Its hope is in constant, 
persistent, united work and in a life spent for them 
and before them. It is a mistake, in our judgment, to 
pray alone for the Jews and to set all eyes on them 
as if they were the ones to welcome the returning 
Lord : they may be relegated to the rear guard ; in- 
deed, they might be glad to be camp followers. There 
is as much prophecy in behalf of that great multitude 
who have wasted this land and with less knowledge 
and cause. The return of the Moslem may be more 
indicative of the coming of Christ than the return of 
the Jew. 

Work should be done with all the blessed hopes of 
the gospel held out to all, Jew and Gentile alike. 
One is as much concerned in the restitution as tbe 
other, and the notion should be given up of arranging 
the Lord's final triumphant procession with the Jews 
leading the host. There is profound meaning in the 
words of Principal Dawson in his " By Paths of Bible 
Knowledge:" — " The best hopes of Palestine rest on its 
Christian people and on the spiritual and intellectual 
elevation of their children now in the schools of the 
missionaries." In what we have said about the work 



547 

to be done here, we do not mean to assail in any man- 
ner that large body of Christian workers who are 
stimulated by their views of prophecy as to the Lord's 
personal advent. We are neither a disbeliever nor a 
theorist on the subject. But we do not believe that 
even to the blessed consummation it is necessary to give 
to the return of the Jews such prophetic prominence. 
Let not any effort flag for their salvation through the 
rejected Saviour; nay, increase them a thousand fold. 
The Jew has a secured place in the final restoration, but 
until greater light appears and greater willingness on 
his part to accept, we do not believe that as a nation 
ha will have the place and that the Lord will delay his 
coming a moment on his account, for while multitudes 
of Israel will be in the redeemed host as individuals, 
in his corporal personality we are doubtful if he will 
not be ia the rear, where the Apostle Paul put him 
when he said, " Seeing ye put it from you and judge 
yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo ! we turn to 
the Gentiles." 



THE PEOPLE OF SYRIA. 

~TE will now speak of the characteristics of the 
people of these lands, in which the difficulty 
of their moral elevation will be seen. A somewhat de- 
tailed statement of their prevailing vices is necessary to 
an appreciative understanding of missionary work. We 
have already indicated many of these ; decency would 
not permit more. But there is another, which has 
reached our own land and may be still more troublesome. 
The whole Levant is the country of indigenous frauds. 
The masses are constitutional liars ; insincerity lies so 



548 

close to their religion that it takes it by the contact. 
We do not mean that there are not exceptions, but 
assure our readers that they are not multitudinous nor 
violent. One is never out of the touch of insincerity. 
Frauds are, therefore, tropical productions, and the gift 
of tongues accompanies them. They are plausible and 
would deceive the very elect. As an example of the 
business morals of the country, a man was about sell- 
ing some ground to the Jesuits and they were slow in 
giving his price, so he sent his business man to ask Dr. 
Jessup if he would walk out over the land. Dr. Jes- 
sup, being under no obligations to the man and not 
understanding the request, drew out of the messenger 
the purpose, which was that at that time he had ar- 
ranged to bring the Jesuits to see the land, who seeing 
him would think that he was after it also and would 
close the bargain at the owner's price. Only a Levan- 
tine would think of fooling a Jesuit. Even in their 
professions of religion the greatest care is observed, for 
they will perform all the external duties for a year or 
more to compass some selfish purpose. 

We had before us in church at Abeih a man appar- 
ently attentive and devout, who has been one of the 
most unmitigated frauds in the use of religious funds 
outside of the penitentiary. He was first a donkey 
boy, to whom an English lady of means, travelling in 
Syria, took a fancy, and had him educated. From her 
he obtained large sums of money and haa still his 
clutches upon some property which she possesses on the 
heights above Beirut, and will, in all probability, cheat 
her or her lawful heirs out of it. This fellow went to 
England and played the pious role for all that could 
be gotten out of it. He married a respectable girl be- 
cause he was such a marvel of piety. He was as re- 



549 

ligiously sleek on all occasions as if he had lived in the 
oil of extreme unction. He collected there large sums 
of money for the founding of mission schools, and after 
his return to Syria sent back most regularly highly 
colored reports of success and careful disbursements 
with accompanying balance sheets. The blessed givers 
were in serene expectancy of the wilderness blooming 
as the rose, when they discovered that he had appropri- 
ated most of the money to building houses, the deeds 
whereof were in his own name, and that no permanent 
schools were in existence. And so he has gone on and 
is continuing, some of his deluded benefactors still re- 
fusing to believe him guilty of duplicity, but he declines 
to give any claim to the property and declares that it 
is his omu. So ends the chapters of his deceptions. 

Another in the same neighborhood was pitied and 
educated and found his way to Scotland, where his 
piety was as odorous as the incense of Arabia. He 
got large gifts from the Scotch churches and was a mis- 
sionary under the care, if we rightly remember, of the 
Free Church. He represented that he had about forty 
schools in successful operation, but tourists and others 
returning began to stir the public mind with reports 
that he was systematically defrauding his employers, 
until the reports were S3 prevalent that a commission 
was sent out, of which Dr. Duff was either chairman or 
an important member. Before they arrived he gath- 
ered children from every quarter for the occasion, and 
filled up the empty schools, captured the committee, 
took them to the show, and was himself showman, and 
persuaded them that the reports they heard were out of 
the jealousies of the American missionaries. They 
called on the missionaries in an injured tone as to the 
wrongs they were perpetrating on their saintly mission- 



55J 

ary, and intimated that it was selfish of them to treat 
the efforts of their Scotcn brethren in an unsympathiz- 
ing way. But the American missionaries told them 
that it was no concern of theirs, that there was work 
enough for all to do, and that if the Scotch brethren 
desired to waste their money on frauds they would not 
hinder them. This kind but indifferent reception to 
the charges laid against them disturbed the enthusiasm 
of the committee, but they made a very favorable re- 
port to the Assembly. But unfavorable reports still 
came and the dissatisfaction increased, until at length a 
deputy was sent with power to take charge of their 
properties and schools, which had cost hundreds of 
pounds. But their missionary would not give up the 
keys, declaring the whole property to be his own and 
had been deeded to himself. He had used their funds, 
as they believed, in house building, and he, like his com- 
peer in the English service, became a wealthy man. 
Dr. Duff denounced him, and all the committee who 
had been taken in by him denounced him, the Assem- 
bly cast him off, but it was all locking the safe door 
when the thief had rifled it. A suit was begun and 
dragged its weary length through Turkish courts, and 
at last the Scotch obtained their school property at 
Suk, but it cost them as much as it was worth, and 
other money in the meantime had been appropriated 
which they could not recover, and the missionary lives 
in a fine marble house still collecting money whenever 
and wherever he can for missionary work in Syria. 

If these were the only cases it would not be worth 
while recording them, but they are everywhere, and if 
our English and American people would stop encour- 
aging these adventurers and adventuresses there would 
be no need of such shameful records. But it is enough 



551 

to show a fez or a turbaned head and talk pious, when 
immediately these creatures are encouraged in their 
lying and in their financial frauds. It is so ravishing 
to the ear of silly religious sentimentalists to hear the 
Oriental glibness and their unbridled fancies; this is 
enough, they are seat to college and sent out lecturing, 
received into the sanctities of the best households, some 
of whom at home would not be permitted to enter a 
decent kitchen. Nobody need care if English and 
Americans only fooled away their money, but they are 
injuring the cause, they are throttling their own breth- 
ren and sisters in their work. They sooner or later be- 
come advertised frauds, and this kind never return to 
do faithful missionary service. They come back too often 
to stir up dissensions by making the natives believe 
that the missionaries keep the money sent for them, 
and that they ought to be independent and manage it 
for themselves. Why not when there is plenty of 
money and honors in England and America for the 
going ? For same have described the American pastors 
as frauds and drunken dogs, and told how they had to 
take a back seat while they themselves were about. 
Thi3 thing will come to an end, but untold mischief 
will be done by entrusting these people with means at 
their own disposal. It is leading them into temptation ; 
they have never had the use of money and cannot 
stand its seductions. Even the Christian natives are 
too ready to start independent concerns of their own, 
and if money is furnished an antagonism is at once 
created, and the curse of this country is in its religious 
divisions. 

If the people are to be lifted up it must be done out- 
side of themselves, they cannot do it ; therefore, to give 
them means i3 to weaken the influence and endanger 



552 

possibilities before those who are willing to make the 
sacrifice to do it. We, therefore, would persuade Chris- 
tian people of wealth, wishing to help this people, to put 
their money in the hands of those who have done all that 
has been done; if they could be trusted in the beginning 
they have done nothing as yet to forfeit public faith. If 
a native proposes to build a school or orphanage see that 
the title is vested beyond their control and that the 
money proposed to be used is under the supervision of 
those who are competent to direct it. Iu the Presbyte- 
rian Church there is the Board of Foreign Missions, 
consisting of men well known who have managed its 
interests for fifty years. Or there is the Woman's 
Department, which can be trusted. In the Congrega- 
tional Church there is the American Board of For- 
eign Missions and a Woman's branch, and so in all 
the Churches. Will not Christian people in their 
benevolences have common sense and stop encourag- 
ing Oriental adventurers and adventuresses? 

Missionary life has its amusments, even in their own 
blunders they have their share of the humor of the world 
and enjoy it. We have heard some, to us, very enjoy- 
able things. One was in the exceeding difficulties in 
the use of tha language by foreigners. Often impor- 
tant meanings in Arabic are determined by the inflec- 
tion of the voice. One of the young missionaries went 
to console a native family in the deepest affliction by 
death of one of their number. He proceeded to use 
the word in Arabic for sorrow or affliction, which is 
"D^que." Now the word for rooster is "deek," but he 
gave " Dique" the same sound as " deek." So he said, 
"Now no rooster (deek) for the present is joyous, but 
grievous, nevertheless," &c, and "For our light roosters 
which endure," &c, and so he went on with the Scriptures 



553 



to a family convulsed with sorrow, and then prayed 
that this "rooster" might be sanctified to their good 
and that all their " roosters" might be changed into joy. 
Another, who never gained the mastery over the lan- 
guage, was preaching on the doctrine of regeneration 
from the words, "A new heart will I give unto you. 
The Arabic for "heart" has but a slight difference m 
sound or inflection from the word for « dog." So he 
proceeded to tell his Mohammedan hearers that with- 
out the most abominable thing to them in the world 
(a "dog") they would be lost, "for the text sayeth 
a new 'dog' will I give you," and then exhorted, 
" Cleanse your dogs, ye double-minded." But such is 
the self-control of this people, and such their ideas of 
what is becoming, that not a muscle moved while they 
were in the place of worship, but when they had gone 
beyond its portals they were convulsed with laughter. 

The weeks spent with these hospitable brethren will be 
numbered among the choice experiences of life. Never 
have we met men and women so devoted to their work, 
so patient in its privations, so hopeful of its future, 
though there is no sentimentality about them concern- 
ing it They believe in the Lord's commission, " Go 
ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature," and in his promise of help and blessing as 
well. 



554 



IN TEE LAND OF EAM. 

S there is nothing between Jaffa and Port Said but 
sea and a misty air, we cannot do better than to 
give just here our impressions of the political condition 
of Egypt. It is well-known that the extravagances of 
the former Khedive, Ismail, both ruined and adorned 
Egypt. No doubt immense sums of money, borrowed 
from England on ruinous terms, were squandered in 
detestable vices, debaucheries and incomparable rascali- 
ties. But much of this money went to redeem Egypt 
from the degradation of the hovel, not in lifting up the 
people, but in building and improving and Europeaniz- 
ing, which helped the people and educated them so far as 
this kind of thing could do. It did not make them 
better, but it showed them what they might become, and 
gave them an idea of what Egypt had been. These 
improvements are all that modern Egypt has to show 
above the range of the mud hut. The former Khedive 
is gone, but his works still exist, and these will save 
him from oblivion, and will modify the judgment of the 
traveller in regard to his guilt in his profligate waste 
of British treasures. 

The present condition of Egypt is the result of that 
masterly Turkish policy of back-action, through which 
Turkey has been stripped of so much of her possessions. 
Turkish artillery always discharges at the breech, and 
the kick she gets hurts herself worse than anybody else. 
Straightforwardness would make her sick, and there- 
fore is only practised by sore necessity. The British, 
who had kept Turkey alive when she ought to have 



been dragged as a poisonous carcass out of Europe, re- 
ceived no gratitude, but rather, according to the Turk's 
everlasting crookedness, were the more hated on this ac- 
count. No pity need be shown to England, but it serves 
to show the Turkishness of the Turk. Mohammedan 
supremacy is the ideal and idol of the Turk. He is strug- 
gling for it in his despair at this moment. The govern- 
ment grasped the drift of English policy in acquiring Cy- 
prus, which, under the circumstances of English inter- 
vention against the Russians, she could not help sur- 
rendering; indeed, it was a part of the conditions of 
the intervention. She saw also what would become of 
the Suez Canal, and foresaw that English domination 
would come, on account of the Egyptian debt, when- 
ever occasion offered. This opportunity for meddling 
could not be resisted, for France had done the same in 
Mexico and is still making it a pretext for her mili- 
tary oppressions, so that it is, so far as we know, a set- 
tled policy in European politics. 

This occupation would work disastrously to Moham- 
medan unity. The Porte had always dreamed of a 
" holy war" in the last event, to save it from the last 
ditch. But how could the Mohammedans of Arabia 
and the vast Soudan and other parts of Africa reach 
the Turkish Empire if England or any other Christian 
power should occupy Egypt? It would take but a 
small force and a few fortifications to separate the 
Mohammedans of the East from the West. Some 
forts also and a small army in the neighborhood of 
Suez would cut off all connection with Syria and Asia 
Minor, and the great future game of a "holy war" to 
save the Turkish Empire would be up, for the parts 
are like the body of a wasp, held only by a vital thread 
in the middle. This England could cut in twain by a 



556 

single stroke at the Suez end of the Canal, which it 
would be the easiest thing possible to bring her ships 
and men to do. This will give the key to the rebellion 
of Arabi Pasha and the Mahdi of the Soudan, in whose 
movements the Sultan had a hand. It was to gain 
lost supremacy that Arabi was to take Egypt, and the 
Mahdi was to despatch the remnant of the Egyptian 
army in the Soudan, which he did. But Arabi slipped 
somewhat in his calculation. He found England the 
lion in his way, and the well-planned scheme for 
Mohammedan supremacy was once more spoiled. This 
expectation was the theme of conversation among all 
the Mohammedans of Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia 
and Asia Minor. They were tremendously excited 
during all these months. They have a tradition that 
a deliverer will come, a true Mahdi, from the East, and 
they were becoming insolent with expectation. So ap- 
parent was it that Christians could not fail to see the 
changed demeanor of the people, and were told that 
their stay in the land would be of short duration. 
As things are at present the Mohammedans are ex- 
ceedingly depressed ; all their hopes have been shat- 
tered and they do not hesitate to say that as to the 
future they are all adrift. 

At this point it might be interesting to inquire a 
little into the future prospects of Egypt. At present 
there is profound doubt, and consequent gloom. Eng- 
land is faltering, uncertain and trifling as to her future 
policy. There are but few who believe that she will 
surrender her position. How could she do so? If she 
gives up will it be to the Sultan ? Then the last state 
of Egypt would be worse than the first. It would be 
running from a lion to meet a bear. More than this, 
the Egyptians would not submit to it unless compelled 



557 

by force of arms. Would England stand by and see 
the Turks conquer Egypt again in the interest of bar- 
barism? If she does this France will take the land ; 
this is the cause of the contention now. It is the 
Napoleonic idea from which France, under no form of 
government, ever recedes. France missed being a 
partner in Egyptian affairs and in her chagrin she will 
never forgive herself. She expects and is even now 
making preparations to occupy Syria. Can England 
afford to let her jealous and ever-hating neighbor seize 
her highway to her Indian possessions ? To give up 
Egypt would be to remove India ten thousand miles 
away; and the same could be said of any other of the 
possible rulers in the event of her demise. It may be 
said let Egypt rule herself; how or wherewith shall 
Egypt rule, overwhelmed with debt and degraded by 
the rascalities of her own rulers who have the knowledge 
to rule, exposed to the armies of the Mahdi, which are 
furnished with the best of equipments by British and 
Egyptian disasters? How can Egypt defend herself 
against the best soldiers outside of Europe? It is a 
question whether it will not yet tax the British govern- 
ment to its full strength to keep the Soudanese invaden 
out of Lower Egypt. 

Then since it is English destiny and duty, why is 
she so irresolute, and so untrue to the duties she owes 
to civilization and Christianity ? It must be because 
she has fallen into the hands of a race of political pol- 
troons who can only wrangle over the Irish policy 
without progress, good order or pacification. Egypt is 
suffering in every part for the want of a strong, helpful 
government, a government which will rule so as to 
help Egypt and to help Egypt help herself. Honesty 
is the fi st requisite, and such a civil service as England 



553 

has now in India would work wonders of restoration to 
Egypt. But all progress is resting on its oars for 
this decision, and humanity must wait, or humanity 
must kindle a fire on the political back of the British 
government. Great Britain will mourn her inability 
to grasp the grandest opportunity for good and glory, 
during the next century, that a gracious Providence has 
ever laid in her pathway. 

Port Said has not improved much, nor can it, for 
it ia only a place for such supplies as can be obtained 
nowhere else. Only those stop who have been belated 
and are compelled to wait for means to get away, or 
have come too soon and must swelter until relief comes. 
Such are hardly fair judges of the progress of a city. 
But in the most favorable light it is a place in which 
to tarry but for the night. Our course was to Cairo 
by Ismail, and to this end a tug-boat was taken. Along 
the coast of the sea for miles is seen the ibis wading in 
its marshes. These birds are from three to five feet high 
when stretched to full length, and look in the distance 
like a graveyard with stones of the purest whiteness. 
The Suez Canal has changed the desert; where only 
glistening sands appeared seventeen years ago there is 
a covering of grass, and willows are starting in the 
moist places. The Canal has been greatly improved, 
deepened, widened, and also walled with stone from a 
third to a half of its length. It is full of great ships 
creeping through in the boiling sun, their passengers 
looking as if gasping for breath, for they are not per- 
mitted to go faster than five miles an hour. The Canal 
must be widened, for the delays are too frequent and 
expensive. The cost of an ordinary ship of three hun- 
dred and fifty tons passing through is three thousand 
five hundred dollars. So it is an expensive luxury, 



559 

but cheap when compared with the time and expense 
of going around the Cape of Good Hope. From Is- 
mail to Cairo ia a railroad over which the trip can be 
made at a slow rate in five hours, 

No greater surprise has met us than the little city 
of Ismail, which was located in the desert, and when 
we saw it first was a shanty town. The Khedive 
introduced fresh water and the people poured it on the 
sands, and immediately they became instinct with life ; 
orange groves adora the spacious dwelling places, date 
palms have grown forty feet high and are adorned 
with clusters of fruit, surrounding their tops like capi- 
tals on graceful columns. On the way to Cairo, in a 
little depression close to the railway, are wooden crosses 
and other marks that tell the sorrows of the battle- 
field, and of many brave Britons who died and of hearts 
which bled in their far-away homes. This is the bat- 
tle-field of Tel el Kebir, which virtually decided the 
fate of Arabi's conspiracy and sent him an exile to Cey- 
lon. The extemporized forts of sand are visible, and the 
gulches washed hj winter rains which were the shelter^ 
ing places &i both armies. The country to Cairo is of 
unsurpassed loveliness, earth has no spot so fertile, five 
crops can be gathered from the same ground in a year. 
The Nile does all this ; it is, in a sense, the giver of life, 
for wherever on the desert it touches life leaps at its 
embrace. All markets in Egypt wait on the move- 
ments of the Nile. All finances and financiers bow at 
its behest. A measure tells its rise daily, and by com- 
parison its possibilities are discounted. So the Wall 
street of Cairo is betting on the "futures" of the Nile, 
because the yield of Egypt depends on the acres it 
covers. 

The country is traversed by canals, from which 
water is conducted by furrows into the fields, and these 



560 

are broken for farther distribution by the foot moving 
the loose sands, which explains the promise of God 
to bring the Israelites into a land which they would 
not water by the foot. The fields are ploughed and then 
are flooded, and the wheat and other grain sown from 
the hand is cast upon the water, which, as it subsides, 
leaves it in the rich deposits which it has brought down 
all the way from its far-off mountain home at Victoria 
Nyanza, which also explains the meaning of the text, 
" Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it 
after many days." The atmosphere has a peculiar 
dreaminess; it is the poet's sky that hang3 over us. 
The great palms, so tall ard graceful, lend beauty to 
the general effect. The abundance of all that grows, 
and the great water courses through all, these makes 
Egypt peerless in fertility. No traveller need go 
further for the ideal of the lost Paradise ; if there is 
any more beautiful it is " Paradise regained." 

Cairo is still "grand Cairo," realising something of 
the dreams of youth when fired by reading the Arabian 
Nights. The former Pasha added art to its natural 
attractions— it has glaring defects— but the glamor, 
which ever bewitches, saves it from adverse criticism. 
The moral condition of the natives is deplorable enough, 
and suggests the strange paradox, how it is that sur- 
passing natural beauty and moral ugliness are so often 
so darkly contrasted with each other ! The only mis- 
sion work of any consequence in Ejrypt is carried on 
by the United Presbyterians of America. Their work 
has been greatly prospered and their mission is the 
best, in some aspects of its present and future, if held 
and pushed, west of Asia. We regret not seeing Dr. 
Lansing, who was in Eagland, but we saw instead his 
able co-worker, Dr. Harvey, from whom we gathered 



561 

the following facts. The United Presbyterian mission 
in Egypt has a Literary College at Assiout in a pros- 
perous condition and a Theological Seminary in Cairo, 
in the mission building, which has a small number of 
students, as nr'ght be expected from the fact that it is 
to prepare a native ministry. The mission has spacious 
and valuable property in the heart of Cairo almost 
opposite to Shepherd's Hotel, which they obtained 
through a very advantageous exchange. 

At the request of Ismail Pasha, Said Pasha made 
the mission, in its infancy, a present of an old building, 
which served it a long time. Being in the way of the 
improvements of Ismail he proposed to give the mission- 
aries in exchange the present position, on which they 
erected the present building, so spacious and so adequate 
to all their needs. In adHtion he gave them about 
thirty-five thousand dollars. The money for the build- 
ing was nearly all given by outside friends in England 
and America. The mission field has as centres Alex- 
andria, Monsura, Cairo, Assiout and Luxor. They 
have of communicants, 2,042; attendants, 4,449; even- 
ing prayer-meetings, 2,180, which is a wonderful dis- 
closure of true inner life, for this is the test everywhere of 
a standing or falling church. In the next test— benevo- 
lence— they do not fall behind. There is raised by 
native members and adherents for church work $5,043 
— $2 49 per member. They gave also to educational 
congregational schools $5,503. In tuition fees in all 
schools, city and country, $11,211. Whole value of the 
property of the mission $193,304, a good showing for 
thirty-three years. In the schools of Miss Whateley are 
between three and four hundred boys and girls. These 
beneficial statements are further confirmed by the read- 
ing habits of the people. Bibles and books are sold, 
9,651 volumes, money realized $2,552. Religious pub- 



5G2 

lications 8,998 volumes, money realized $1,149. Edu- 
cational books for schools sold everywhere 19,179, 
money realized $4,405. Total attendance in the Sun- 
day-schools 417. 

The moral effect of English occupation in Egypt seems 
to be an increase of drinking in the towns and cities. 
But the British influence is favorable and helpful to the 
mission work, especially in facilitating the building of 
churches. The American ministry consists of nine men, 
of lady missionaries there are sisteen ; ordained native 
ministers, eight;* licentiates and theological students, 
ten. This is a good showing for the force employed, 
but our United Presbyterian friends ought to double 
it. The field is white for the harvest and it is all their 
own; they alone are responsible for its needs and 
possibilities. It this Church should never do another 
stroke of missionary work anywhere else, and met the de- 
mands of this land, it would be a glorious record, even at 
the close of the dispensation of the Spirit. "We know 
of no other Church that has a country all to itself, and 
we are glad cf it, but there ought to be no loitering on 
the part of the Church, she ought to be straining every 
nerve. What God has given her ought to be an argu- 
ment by which she should occupy the field more fully 
and faithfully. That he has rewarded her efforts so 
far ought to be another. What she can do ought to 
be another argument, and what God commands her to 
do, in the great commission out of which the Church of 
Christ draws its life, ought to be the crowning motive 
to send more men and women and more support to 
this most interesting heritage— the evidence of God's 
special favor to that Church. 

It w T as not possible to pass the Pyramids without an- 
other look at them. So the usual bargaining began, 
not for donkeys as in the past, with a bareheaded boy, 



563 

clad only in a shirt, to guide them by prodding them 
in the haunches. Things have changed and now the 
pilgrim rides to the Pyramids in a landau. The 
slightest apparent interest in these wonders will raise 
the price of a vehicle to an extortionate rate, so when 
solicited to make the journey we said, "What for? 
We have seen them. Are they any bigger than they 
were? Have you done any thing to them?" "O, 
no," said cabby, "how could we?" "Why, easy 
enough, if you were of any account. You could have 
built more stones upon them if you were worthy of the 
name of Egyptians; your ancestors built the whole of 
them, and you fellows could not put up even one stone 
in seventeen years. You are not Egyptians or before 
this you would have built a bigger one on this side of 
the river." " No, no ; we are Egyptians, very poor, 
cannot build any thing." " O, that will not pass, you 
are not so poor as those fellows who had to do the work 
on the old Pyramid for nothing, and you have not even 
plastered the Pyramid in all this time." "O, no, sir; 
how would de Pyramid look plastered?" "First rate. 
It would show that somebody was alive in Egypt." 
" But it would spoil it so. De peoples could not get up, 
and they get no monies." "But the people coming to 
see it would save money, don't you see ? You have 
gotten their money always since the Pyramid was 
built, is it not fair for the people who ccme ? Turn 
about is fair play." He only shrugged bis shoulders 
and look disgusted. We said then, " You have done 
nothing to the Pyramids and still want big prices, 
you have not even whitewashed them." "No, no! 
Whitewash de Pyramid ! De peoples would not know 
it, think it a big tomb." "Well, is there not a tomb 
in it?" "Who told you that?" "Some Americans. 
What was the man's name who counted the stars from 



564 

the Pyramid?" "Don't know." "Was he from 
Cairo?" "Don't know. I never saw such an Ameri- 
can. Other Americans when they don't like my brice 
to de Byramida say, 'To de debil with your twenty- 
five francs,' and you say so many strange things and 
don't give me my brice." " Well, what is your price for 
all the worn-out Pyramids, without repairs?" " If you 
will go now and don't say so many things about doing 
something to the Byramids I will take you for fifteen 
francs." "No backshesh, no grumbling, no lying?" 
" I don't know what you say." " Yes, you do. You 
won't say when we get back it is twenty francs?" 
"No." "Well, drive up, we will, go." 

In no part of Cairo is the change of years so appar- 
ent as on the way to the Pyramids. When here before 
we rose before daylight and rode out to the river on 
donkeys, and there took an old crazy craft which was 
pulled up the stream, and the boatmen took the donkeys 
by the tails and ears and rolled them in, and when 
loaded and tbe old boat was in motion they would all go 
to one side until it almost went under. Then the drivers 
would kick and thump them to get the boat trim, and as 
if possessed they would all go to the other side, so that 
the river was crossed shifting from side to side to keep 
from going under. After crossing there were fights 
and guttural contentions about fees, and lying and 
screaming until patience itself was ready to lie down to 
die in the sands. But now at seven o'clock we are 
driven in a carriage under a fine avenue of trees shad- 
ing nearly every step of the way. These had just been 
planted then, now their bodies are a foot in diameter. 
They have arched the splendid highway until there is 
no such street in any city in Europe, except a short 
one in Brussels, twelve miles of arched boughs almost 
excluding the sun's rays the whole distance. 



565 

The Nile is crossed now by a superb iron bridge, as 
are also the inlets. The river was at full height, and 
from the bank on which the Pyramid stands it 
looks more like a great inland sea than a river. 
The Pyramids have not changed, they are too old 
to change, time only makes them more venerable. 
One loses no element of veneration by absence. The 
same mute wonderment fills the mind, too overwhelm- 
ing to permit active thought. This is the only creation 
of man that we have ever seen that did not dwindle be- 
fore investigation, for which familiarity did not breed 
contempt. We did not attempt to climb to the top of 
Cheops, having had enough of that when much younger, 
but a distinct remembrance abides of the limping it pro- 
duced and the achings superinduced ; so with the help of 
memory and observation we were satisfied with the vision 
of its greatness. There has been but little done except 
to cut down through the sand and rubbish at the front 
about fifty feet, so that the base stones are exposed un- 
touched by time, showing the chisel marks on their 
surface; ako disclosing a pavement but little the worse 
for the oppressive centuries that have settled down upon 
it. The Sphynx looks sadly serene, old ag8 does not 
spoil the expression, but while the face does not show 
the despoilings of time, the body does, and soon irrepar- 
able ruin will be done unless arrested. 

There is a part of a temple in front uncovered suffi- 
ciently to show its splendid proportions and workmanship 
and the genius of the people who conceived and executed 
it. The columns are perfect, being cut from the hardest 
red granite. There is a constant contest going on here 
between the air and winds, the one to crumble all these 
wonders and the other to bring up sands to bury them 
from the desert, on the edge of which they stand. These 



566 

sands are piled up on the sides nearly one hundred feet 
deep. It is a place of general wonderment. The 
crowds who meet and greet each other are almost as 
suprising as the Pyramids themselves,, There are from 
fifty to one hundred Arabs who wish to serve as 
guides, who shout, elbow each other and pluck at 
any article they can grasp which the tourist possesses. 
One is disposed to look for the limbs on his body lest 
they have run away with them, and the only possi- 
bility of heading them is to coolly do the opposite 
from what they propose. When they start for one 
object we turn and go to another, and when, with 
a shout, they would change front we also changed 
course, and thus confused in all their ideas of order 
they reluctantly left us. Only two boys, in whom 
there was something decidedly interesting, persevered. 
They were not disconcerted at our changes, for they 
professed to be only learners. One said, "We get 
big men and be dragomen," with the affected mod- 
esty of those who used to declaim, "You would 
ne'er expect one of my age to speak in public on 
the stage," and they gained a point. The larger said, 
"When we get big we will be dragomen to Ameri- 
cans." This suggestion awakened an interest, and we 
said, " You must make a speech to the Americans; they 
like speeches and we will teach you." Planting our 
limbs in the position of a Sophomore in declamation 
we bade him take the same position, which he did with 
uncommon ease. Pointing to the top of the great Pyra- 
mid we dictated, " You must say, ' Ladies and gentle- 
men from the United States of America, behold yon 
Pyramid lifting its sublime head. It is looking down 
upon you from more than forty centuries. Ladies and 
gentlemen of the United States of America, the great- 



567 

est country on which the sun shines, that Pyramid was 
built for free men, and is never so grand as when you 
decorate its proud altitude.' " The little monkey was 
taking it in, gesture and all, when the person who acts as 
" helm," growiug desperate in the broiling sun, peremp- 
torily ordered us onward, murmuring something about 
"not making a fool of one's self," and thus ended 
our chapter of Pyramidal events. 

The only other object of very special interest in 
Cairo is the Museum of Boulak, which is a place for 
musing over the past, for it is a cemetery of illustrious 
"deaders" and their traps. They look grimly out from 
their sarcophagi— a horrid sight. Their poor helpless 
remains are dried brown and sunken, their teeth being 
the only natural feature left, but their surroundings 
make these ghastly. The last "find" are all in stained 
and varnished boxes, with glass over their faces, which is 
covered with cloth to exclude the light. Among these 
mummies are the remains of Rameses the Second, the 
Pharaoh of the Exodus. As the Egyptians were the 
first to believe in the immortality of the soul and its 
final reunion with the body, great care was taken in 
the preservation of the body. The soul is often repre- 
sented on the sarcophagi as coming back in the form 
of a bird to see the condition of its past and future 
abode. The soul was believed to folio ? the course of 
the sun, swinging disembodied through countless age-", 
during which time it must prepare for appearing at the 
judgment. To aid in this preparation extracts from 
the sacred "prayer roll" were painted upon the in- 
terior of each sarcophagus. Appearing at last before 
its forty- two judges the soul wa3 weighed in the balance 
with truth, and if found wanting, or if any part of the 
prayer roll were forgotten, or one sin were unac- 



568 

counted for it was recorded by a scribe, and the soul 
was sent back into the body of a pig, to go through with 
another series of transmigrations until it should again 
appear in human form and again be brought to judg- 
ment, Behind Osiris, the chief deity, sits Anubis, the 
dog, guarding the entrance to the next world. These 
vicissitudes of the soul are pictured upon the sar- 
cophagi, upon prayer rolls, &c, and many of these are 
preserved in Boulak and other museums. Here, also, 
are to be seen various things taken from the tombs, 
huge braided wigs, articles of food and fruit provided 
for the supposed needs of the dead, numerous little 
bronze images to represent servants ; each guest at a 
funeral brought one or more of these to contribute to a 
departed friend's retinue. 

Every man prepared his own tomb during life and 
lavished upon it more care and expense than upon his 
abode while living. Upon the walls were painted 
scenes from his daily life, his occupation, servants per- 
forming their daily tasks, domestic animals, himself and 
his guests feasting, &c. The most sacred obligation an 
Egyptian could take upon himself was in mortgaging 
the mummies of his ancestors. From the treasured 
antiquities in Boulak it is evident that most of the so- 
called modern processes of daily life, mechanics, sur- 
gery and even dentistry, were known to this ancient 
people, and in mechanics they doubtless excelled us 
as the stone carved so skilfully by them would defy 
modern implements by their hardness. Some force 
also superior to ours must have been employed in mov- 
ing and putting in place the huge stones of the Pyra- 
mids. The statues of the earliest period of Egyptian 
art display a grace and expression which are entirely 
lacking in the stereotyped and stiff style of the later 



569 

periods. Necklaces, bracelets and various other articles 
of jewelry are wrought with much skill and taste, arid 
the linen in which the mummies were wrapped is of the 
finest texture. Among the cartouches of the various 
kings is that of Cheops, the builder of the great Pyramid 
— two birds and a serpent, enclosed in an elipse. This 
is also seen in the hieroglyphic inscriptions represent- 
ing the building of the great Pyramid. The religious 
ideas of the Egyptians were drawn from scenes in 
nature around them, Osiris, the chief deity, was the 
Nile, the most deified beneficent force of nature to 
them, Isis was the earth and the overflow of the river 
the marriage of these deities. The desert wind, which 
dried up the waters and made desolate the earth, be- 
came Typhon, the spirit of evil. The earliest form of 
worship was that of the sun, and purely monotheistic, 
but it became corrupt by changing the symbols of deity 
into objects of devotion, and so there came to be gods 
many in Egypt. One king restored sun worship and 
abolished idols; he with his queen are represented as 
goiog to the temple, the sun pouring down his rays in 
blessing upon their heads and kissing their lips with 
the ringed cross, the pymbol of original life and tha 
power of imparting it. The immortality of the soul 
was symbolized by the winged globe, and also by the 
beetle rolling a ball before him, therefore the scara- 
bens was sacredly regarded as a charm against evil. 
The bull, the cat, the crocodile and other animals were 
worshipped, their images wrought in stone, and often 
tteir bodies were embalmed. 

We now say farewell to the kingdom of the Pha- 
raohs, and set our faces towards the ancient lands of 
India and China, of which we will write hereafter. 



INDEX. 



Assembly at Belfast 15 

Aborigines of Ireland 24 

American Machinery 49 

Appearance of the Queen 66 

Antoine Court 176 

A Country Without a Sabbath 199 

Alsace and Lorraine . 220 

Ages of Man as Seen in Lacrustine Implements. .... 223 

Austria 244 

Austria, Mineral Wealth of 244 

Appeal of Maria Theresa 267 

Anti-Semitic Movement 274 

Army Craze 314 

Among the Ruins of the Seven Churches 389 

Apostate Julian, The 410 

American Engine in Alexandretta . 420 

A Nauseated Whale 423 

Antoninus Pius 441 

Architectural Display and Eeligious Decay 444 

Asaud Shidiak 458 

Aaleih 479 

Aceldema 509 

Arab Guides 566 

Battles of Babyhood 9 

Burial at Sea 11 

Belfast 26 

Belfast Architecture 27 

Belfast Suburbs 28 

Blarney Land 30 

Beggar One Hundred and Seven Years Old 35 

1 



Birth and Girlhood of the Queen 57 

Broad Church of Britain .............. '75 

Bernardo's, Dr., Mi-sion Schools . . 79 

Bernardo's, Dr. , Discovery of the Depth of London Poverty 79 

British Progress in Fifty Years 59 

Bradlaughs, The Two 107 

Buffalo Bill . . . 150 

Basle 221 

Blight of State Patronage 223 

BudaPesth 271 

Battle of Mohacs 294 

Belgrade 296 

Boat Mills . 304 

"Bougies" 308 

Bulgaria 317-320 

Bulgaria, People of 318 

Bulgarian Greek Church 319 

Bucharest 315 

Bulgaria the Badge of Future Conflicts 320 

Bulgaria, Religious Condition of 335 

Bulgaria, Methodist Mission in 336 

Bosphorus, The 339 

Bloody Eites in Constantinople 363 

Battle of Issus 442 

Beirut and its Surroundings 472-540 

Baalhec 441 

Baalbec, Monster Stones of 443 

Baalbec, Acropolis of 446 

Baalbec, Temple of the Sun 447 

Baalbec, Sun God 447 

Baalbec, of To-day 448 

Baalbec, Mission Work 449 

Bethlehem 508 

Bezetha 518 

Bloody Conflicts 529 

Bethhoron 530 

Boulak 567 

Character and Classes Aboard Ship 5 

Cloture 16 

Chronic Discontent in Ireland and its Causes 23 

Craigivad 28 

2 



Castle of Con O'Neil 28 

Carrick Fergus 29 

Contests between Beauty and Ugliness 33 

Contrasts Counterparted 38 

Crimes Bill and Laud Question 40 

Celt Must be Absorbed 53 

Chalk Formations 164 

Calvin or Voltaire 173 

Country of Tongue Products 266 

Crown of St. Stephen 270-308 

Chronic Nervousness of the Nations 272 

Calcedon 342 

Constantinople 353 

Castle of Galata 355 

Constantinople in History 367 

Constantinople, Sieges of 368 

Constantinople,, Literary Treasures of 369 

Constantinople, Jewish Missions in 370 

Constantinople, Bible Work in 381 

Cradle and Grave of Art • 385 

Christian Schools in Smyrna 393 

Cicilian Gates 422 

Celebrating the Birth of Daughters 428 

Chat with the Builders of the Third Century 441 

Church Service in Beirut • • 475 

Carmel • • • 491 

Crusaders in Palestine • 496 

Capernaum and Bethsaida 496 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre 524 

Country of Indigenous Fraud 547 

Cairo 559 

Cairo, Missions in 561 

Cartouch of Cheops 569 

Devil Earned in His Attempt to Eeduce Ireland to 

Ugliness 33 

Dom Pedro 36 

Discussions in Hyde Park 161 

Deaconesses 114 

Dog Supporting a Family 210 

Demoralizations of a Country through a Standing Army 251 

Decay of the Seventh Commandment in Austria . ... 251 

3 



Drudgeries of Women 272 

Down the Danube 294 

Disorganization Before Reorganization 319 

Downfall of Turkish Magnificence 364 

Demand for Arabic Scriptures 474 

Damascus 490 

Dothan 498 

Dead Sea 517 

Economic and Moral Eesources of Ireland 23 

Estate of Lord Dufferin 28 

Evangelizing Better Than Cudgeling 41 

Effects of Free Trade 48 

England 53 

Extension the Life of England 61 

Evangelical Class in England 76 

Established Church, Divisions of 78 

English Atheists _ 104 

English Presbyterian Church 128 

English Faithfulness to Duty 133 

English Methodists 142 

English Congregationalists 143 

English Baptists 144 

English Eailroad Trains 154 

English Bar-women 160 

English Love of Sensational Preaching 162 

Eugene Reveillaud 192 

English Hospitality in Orsova 310 

English Language to Become Supreme 347 

El Kadisha . < 430 

Esdralon 492 

Esdrselon, Battles on 494 

Ebal 505 

Early Egyptian Art 568 

Egyptian Eeligious Ideas 569 

Egyptian Symbols 569 

Flower Wealth of Ireland 30 

France an Extinguished Paradise 163 

French iEsthetic Taste 164 

French Frenzies 169 

French Protestantism, Martyrs of 176 

French Marriage Laws 186 

4 



French in a Eeceptive Mood 187 

French Anti- Atheistic League 189 

French Deaconesses , . 190 

French Out-door Life 206 

French Passion for Liberty 212 

Fetes of July 212 

Festivities of St. Stephen 266 

Francis Joseph not Emperor, but King of Hungary . . . 267 

Fortress of Peterwarddin 295 

Ferdinand of Bulgaria 327 

Forest of Philosophers, The 390 

Founding of the Syrian College 462 

Friends' Mission in the Lebanons 487 

Geology of the Dan ubian Valley . 301 

Gnats on the Danube 303 

Golden Horn 357 

Greece 386 

Greece, Mission Work in 387 

"God's Acre," Beirut 455 

Greek and Druse "Women 479 

Gerizim 504 

Gate, The Golden 513 

Gate, St. Stephen's . 518 

Gate, Damascus 518 

Greek Church on Olivet ............... 515 

German Colonies in Syria 543 

Good Eoots 274 

Headgear in Ireland 25 

Hyde Park 99 

Happy Jack 92 

Homes in Canada 96 

Huguenots 174 

Hapsburgs • . 259 

Hapsburgs, Tombs of the 260 

Hungary 265 

Hungarian Cattle 268 

Hateful Barracks 271 

Higher Education of Turkish Women 345 

Hospital of Florence Nightingale on the Sea of Marmora 366 

Hittites . 433 

Hittite Stones 434 

5 



Keliopolis 444 

Hasbeya 482 

Hill of Evil Counsel 509 

Hill Ophel 510 

Hill Scopns 517 

House of Simon the Tanner 531 

"Holy War" Thwarted . . 555 

Impressions of a Fading Country 3 

Ireland Afloat 13 

Irish Clergymen, &c 15 

Ireland's Drink Bill 19 

Irish Breakfast 19 

Ireland as Seen From the North 22 

Irish Antiquities . 26 

Irish Work and Wit 28 

Irish Politeness 30 

Irish Estates too Small and too Poor to Sustain .... 39 

Ireland Dying of too Much Politics 39 

Ireland Educated to Discontent 41 

Ireland too Little for Ireland 48 

Improved Conditions Under British Eule 56 

Immense Fields of Austria 268 

Innspruck . . . 248 

Iron Gates 311 

Ignorance of Greek Priests 315 

Invasion of Syria by Ibrahim Pasha 459 

Impostors in Syria 548 

In the Land of Ham 554 

Ismailia 559 

Jubilee, Year of 53 

Jubilee, Reunions and Returns . 56 

Jubilee Tributes to Martyrs 63 

Jubilee Procession 66 

Jubilee in Missions 72 

Jockeys at the Jubilee Service at Euda Pesth . . • . . 270 

Jacob's Forgotten Vow 500 

Jerusalem, the Golden 506 

Jerusalem, Modern . 507 

Jaffa Gate 507 

Jews' Wailing Place 511 

Jaffa. 631 

6 



532 
Jaffa, Mission in • 

Jaffa, Difficulties of Landing at ^J 

c 54 J 

Jesuits in Syria 

.... 34 
Killarney 

Kingdom with the Influenza ^ 

„.,.,, 158 

Knighthood 

Kossuth's Country • • '510 

Kedron _ 9 „ 

Knights of St. John in Jerusalem «>-& 

37 
Lakes of Killarney ....•■•••••••■• 

Landlords and Tenants • 

Loyalty to the Queen . 

Lord's Song in a Strange Land • 

London Waifs 

London Waifs, Dr. Bernardo's Home for 87 

London Buildings 

London Chimney Pots 

Legation's Estimate of American Greatness 157 

Lord Eadstock's Home for Homeless Men 161 

Leaving the Danube ' ■ " 

, . 414 

Latakia ..... 496 

Luhia 

Last Nights in Jerusalem 

Matrimonial Experiences 

Missions of Established Church. . . . • ?* 

Mildmay Mission • • ■ 

Mildmay Mission to the Jews 

McAll Missions • • ■ " 18 ™* 

Marchfield Aspern and Esslingen ^ 

Mission to Jews in Hungary • 28 

Mission of American Board in Bulgaria, Eoumelia and 

1 ," , . 329-333 

Macedonia 

Mohammedan Service in St. Sophia •»' 

Mohammedan Graveyard in Scutari *w 

Modern School of Peripatetics * 

MountPrion . 41o 

Marsine .. „ 

Marsine, Mission at 424 

Mission of Good Clothes " ^ 

Mission Work by Example 

Missionary Shrewdness '"''"''' 



Missionary Wedding, A 452 

Mission Work in Syria 456 

Maronite Martyr 458 

Massacre of Christians by Druses 459 

Medical Mission Work in Syria 466 

Moslem Intemperance 486 

Mohammedan Building 507 

Mount Moriah 510 

Mount Olivet 516 

Mountains of Moab 516 

Mosque of Omar 519-523 

Missions in Jerusalem 524 

Mildmay Mission at Jaffa ■ . . 535 

Medical Missions in Syria ....... 540 

Missionary Blunders 552 

Mortgaging Ancestral Mummies 568 

Nature's Dykes. 32 

Not a Revival of Contest Between Protestants and Cath- 
olics 40 

Nature's Beauties and Man's Abominations 391 

New England Men in Asii Minor 420 

Nazareth • 494 

Nablous 502 

Nebo 517 

Nile, The 559 

Outlawry in Ireland Justified as a War Policy 47 

Orderly British Crowds 65 

Orsova 307 

"Onto Constantinople" 321 

Oriental Donkey, An • 364 

Olivet 510 

Politics in the Church 17 

Political Condition of Ireland 38 

Political Blatherskites 39 

Political Troubles Magnified 54 

Progress Fluctuating 61 

Pleasure Grounds and Battle Fields ........ 99 

Power in a Single Seed ...••.. 148 

Protestant Church Crippled by Imperial Manipulation . 179 

Paris 204 

Paris Sewers 209 



Paris Catacombs 209 

Political Condition of France 214 

Political Policy of France 217 

Pre- Adamite Tailors , 230 

Political Condition of Austria 261 

Plains of the Danube 263 

Prayers of Maria Dorothea 277 

Political Environments of Bulgaria 321 

Pan-Sclavistic Idea 321 

Plato, A Modern 408 

Pompeiopolis 422 

Prussian Deaconesses 488 

Plain of Sharon 504-530 

"Place of the Skull" 520 

Pool of Hezekiah 523 

Palestine 544 

People of Syria 547 

Port Said 558 

Pyramids ..... 562 

Pharaoh of the Exodus 567 

Quarries beneath Paris • . . 207 

Quarries Ancient, at Jerusalem 512-518 

Pound Towers . 26 

Koss Castle 37 

Real Mischief Makers Cannot be Shot or Boycotted . . 40 

Roots of Present Irish Agitations .......... 47 

Roman Catholic Church Powerless . . 47 

Reserved Seats on Chimney Tops 64 

Royal Beauty 65 

Royal Men . 65 

Royal Cortege 67 

Religious Progress of Britain t < < * * . 67 

Review of English Missions 68 

Religious Condition of English Middle Classes 137 

Religious Condition of France . 168 

Religious Condition of Austro-Hungary ..*.*... 273 

Rabbi Llichtenstein 285 

Remains of Trajan's Road 503 

Roman Fort on the Danube t 306 

Roumania <■ 314 

Rustchuck 316 

9 



Bussian Emissaries in Bulgaria 326 

Eobert College 339 

Euias of Ephesus .................. 403 

Euins of Temple of Diana 404 

Eailroads in Asia Minor 421 

Eemnant of the Samaritans ............. 503 

Spiritual Awakenings 20 

Steeds of every Form and Fancy 34 

Spread of the English Language 70 

School-mistress more than a Match for Heathenism . . 71 

Sacrifices of Love 98 

St. Paul's, London 145 

Statue of General Gordon 145 

Switzerland 219 

Swiss Lacrustine Villages . . . . • 227 

Scientific Inventive Genius 229 

Search for the House of God 235 

Story of a Widow's Mite 238 

Semlin 296 

Servia ............ ...... 297 

Scotch Severity and Benevolences 297 

Strongholds of Eobber Knights 302 

Slaying of the Dragon by St. George 302 

Sclavs . 312 

Samakov 331 

Scutari 342 

Scutari Mission 343 

Sublime Porte 356 

Sultan, The 356 

Stamboul S57 

Seraglio Point . 358 

Seraglio Point, Tragedies of . 358 

St. Sophia, Mosque of 360 

Smyrna 390 

Smyrna, "TheEest" . 394 

Smyrna, Work of Dr. Constantine 397 

School of Magic at Ephesus 410 

Sale of Scriptures among the Canaanites ....... 435 

Syria the Heaven of Cranks 438 

Summering in the Lebanons 479 

Shimlan 481 

10 



Sidon. Discovery of Ancient Tombs . 483 

Solomon's " Shabby Cities " . . . 490 

Samaria 498 

Sychar now Nablous . 500 

Solomon's Pools ............ 508 

Siloam .510 

Solomon's Temple 512 

Site of the Crueifixion 519 

Suez Canal 558 

Sphynx, The 565 

Sacred Prayer Roll ................. 567 

Titillating Effects of Blarney on American Pocket Books 32 

Things Picked np in London 145 

Temperance in England 158 

Tyrolese Alps 245 

Turkish Greed ................... 314 

Trajan's Bridge • 31i 

Turkish Idea of a Museum .............. 359 

Turkish Offal 360 

Turkish Whitewash 361 

TombofPolycarp. 402 

Temple of Hecate .410 

Turkish Desecration of Art 412 

Turkish Intolerance. 414 

Tripoli and its Surroundings 430 

Turkish Soldiers only Mohammedans 437 

Turkish Idea of Justice 463 

Turkish Law vs. Yankee Legs ............ 464 

Tiberias . 497 

TowerofDavid 507 

Turkish Back Action 554 

Tel-el Kebir • 559 

Tomb of Zechariah . 514 

Tombof Absalom 514 

Unitarians in England 129 

Unity of Utility and Beauty 165 

Vocal Music 20, 428 

Victoria Called to the Throne • • 57 

Valley of the Scie I 66 

Vienna • ^° 

Vienna, Missions in 255 

11 



Vienna, Architecture of ...... . 258 

Varna 317 

Valley of Hirrnom 509 

Valley of Jehosophat . 510 

Valley Tyropean .................. 510 

Valley of Kedron 510 

Wretched Humanity 33 

Whiskey and Goat's Milk 35 

Wrongs From the English Establishment in Ireland . . 42 

Wealth of the French Peasant 167 

Warts on the Memory of the Hapsburgs ....... 264 

Wallachian Costumes 303 

Wallachian Financier and Secretary of "Leg-ation" . . 307 

Work of Publication in Turkey 351 

Watching and Praying in St. Sophia 361 

What is Missionary Work ? • 423 

Work of Rev. Gerald Dale 451 

Waymarks in Palestine 489 

Water Carriers at Siloam 510 

"Whitewash the Pyramid" 563 

Zurich 225 

Zwingli 226 

Zenobia 433 

Zahleh 155 



March, 1887 

BOOKS 

PUBLISHED BY 

ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 

530 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



THE CRISIS OF MISSIONS ; or, The Voice out 

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,6mo • • • ^ 

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Christian Work. . 

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work." — New York Observer. 

" In the little volume before us, the history of missions is un- 
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Baptist Herald. . . ' 

" One of the most important books to the cause of Foreign Mis- 
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*A. L. O. E. LIBRARY. 

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On the Parables. 121110 J '75 

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(I) 



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The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament. i2mo $1.25 
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BRODIE, Emily. 

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From Nile to Norway i.^o 

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EDWARDS, Jonathan. 

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GUTHRIE, Thomas, D.D. 

Life and Works of Thomas Guthrie, D.D. New, neat, 

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Life of Christ. 3 vols. 121110 3.00 

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(5> 



HODGE, A. A., D.D. 

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